PRETORIA, June 11. /TASS/. The number of laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has increased to 676 from 635, according to a daily bulletin of the Ministry of Communications and Media Affairs.

The death toll rose to 136 people from 127 earlier.

Doctors and medical staff in the DRC went to a nationwide indefinite strike on Thursday, including in the Ebola outbreak areas, demanding a higher pay, better working conditions, and additional remuneration for working with Ebola patients. The government is not making concessions yet.

The SBS News portal reports that there is a bad shortage of reagents for testing patients' blood for the disease in the country's three leading laboratories for the diagnosis of the Ebola virus, which jeopardizes a program to prevent the spread of infection. According to recent reports, the DRC medical authorities have so far tracked 61% of the contacts that Ebola-infected people had with others. The World Health Organization requires that this figure be at 95%.

The epicenter of the current outbreak, which began on May 15, is located in the east of the country in the province of Ituri. Ebola cases were identified in two more provinces - North and South Kivus. Significant territories of these provinces, including their capitals, are under the control of the rebels, who have virtually no funds to maintain normal functioning of the health system.