China pledges an extra HK$630 million to Africa in battle against Ebola

China has pledged 500 million yuan (HK$630 million) to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to battle the Ebola epidemic - its largest round of aid yet to help contain the spread of the deadly virus.

This is the fourth round of Chinese aid in the fight against Ebola, which has killed more than 4,800 people since its worst epidemic on record began earlier this year.

The nation has sent hundreds of aid workers to Africa and previously contributed about US$40 million to fight the disease, including US$6 million that went to the World Food Programme.

The donation came as a New York doctor was diagnosed with the disease after returning from treating patients in West Africa, becoming the first case in the city and the fourth in the United States. Meanwhile, Mali announced its first case of the disease - a two-year-old girl who had recently been to Guinea.

The World Health Organisation said millions of doses of two experimental Ebola vaccines could be ready for use in 2015 and tests on five more experimental vaccines would start in March.

Meanwhile, US officials announced that Nina Pham, 26, the first of two nurses diagnosed with Ebola after treating Liberian Thomas Duncan at a Dallas hospital, was now free of the virus. Duncan died of the disease on October 8.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo urged residents not to be alarmed, even though the doctor had ridden the subway, taken a taxi and been bowling. Officials had followed "clear and strong" protocols in handling the doctor.