South Korea will likely finalize a plan next week for the dispatch of medical workers to Ebola-hit Sierra Leone following the completion of a field study, officials said Tuesday.
   
The 12-member advance team has recently visited a British Ebola clinic being built in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, to which Seoul's medical workers will be sent. 
  
"As the field study has been wrapped up, Seoul plans to decide around next week when and how medical personnel will be sent," said a government official. "The medical workers are likely to be dispatched within December."
   
Around 10-20 medical personnel, including doctors, nurses and military health workers, may be sent to the clinic run by Britain for about two or three months, officials said.
   
Seoul has joined global efforts to contain the deadly Ebola virus by announcing a plan to send a group of doctors and nurses to the West African country. The fatal virus is estimated to have killed more than 5,400 people since December last year.
   
Seven members of the advance team returned home Friday following the field study. The remainder has stayed in Britain to discuss safety measures for Korean medical personnel as well as the wording of a preliminary deal with the British government over their dispatch. They were to arrive in Seoul later in the day.
   
Seoul has said that the team of volunteer medical workers will be picked based on their level of expertise, adding that a higher-than-expected number of medical personnel have applied.
   
Seoul has so far provided US$5.6 million for the global efforts to fight the Ebola virus. (Yonhap)