Since 17 February 2020 no new cases have been reported in the ongoing Ebola virus disease EVD outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo While this is a positive development there is still a high risk of re emergence of EVD given the current challenges related to limited resources amidst other local and global emergencies continued insecurity and population displacement in previous hotspots and limited access to some affected communities It is therefore critical to maintain surveillance and response operations in the period leading up to the declaration of the end of the outbreak as well as after the declaration as outlined in the WHO recommended criteria for declaring the end of the EVD outbreak Ongoing outbreak response efforts continue which include investigating and validating new alert cases supporting appropriate care and rapid diagnosis of suspected cases which continue to be detected supporting survivors through a multi disciplinary programme and strategically transitioning activities From 24 to 31 March an average of 4082 alerts were reported and investigated daily Of these alerts 274 were validated as suspected cases requiring specialized care and laboratory testing to rule out EVD From 23 to 29 March 2376 samples were tested including 1322 blood samples from alive suspected cases 365 swabs from community deaths and 689 samples from re tested patients Overall laboratory activity decreased by 14 compared to the prior week