South Korean government officials left for Ebola-hit Sierra Leone on Wednesday in a bid to support the third and final batch of Seoul medical workers who will treat Ebola patients in the West African country, officials said.
  

The departure came as a military medical team consisting of two doctors and three nurses left for Britain on Saturday for safety training. After that, they will kick off a four-week operation on Feb. 23 in Goderich, near the capital Freetown.
  

To support the medical team, officials from the foreign and defense ministries and the state grant aid agency departed for Sierra Leone earlier in the day, Seoul's foreign ministry said.
  

They will support the operations of Korean medical workers and coordinate works with the Sierra Leone government, it added.
  

Seoul initially planned to send a total of 30 medical staff to Sierra Leone. But the number was reduced to 24 as South Korea accepted a recommendation from Emergency, an Italian non-government agency in charge of the Ebola center, as new cases of the disease have been on the decline, according to the foreign ministry.
  

South Korea has joined global efforts to fight Ebola by sending medical workers and offering a combined $12.6 million in assistance.
  

The virus is estimated to have killed more than 9,000 people since the outbreak in December 2013, according to the World Health Organization. (Yonhap)