Kenya's Ministry of Health confirmed on Friday that a 65-year-old woman has tested positive for Ebola, becoming the country's third confirmed case in just eleven days — all three tied to a single family and the nation's first-ever outbreak of the deadly virus.

The woman had already been under quarantine since October 2 as a known contact of Kenya's first patient, a 40-year-old man who had traveled from the Democratic Republic of Congo and died in a Nairobi hospital on October 5, according to the Ministry of Health statement reported by Citizen Digital. After developing fever, sore throat and malaise, she was moved to an Infectious Diseases Unit for supportive care. Lab tests at Kenya's National Virology Reference Laboratory and the KEMRI-CDC laboratory confirmed the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a form of the virus with no licensed vaccine.

She is a close relative of both the first victim and Kenya's second patient — a 39-year-old man from the same family who is listed in stable condition, the Associated Press reported via ABC News. Health officials say 127 of 130 identified contacts have now been traced and placed under 21-day quarantine, with just three contacts still unlocated — tracing has proven especially difficult across the border in Uganda and Congo, where the first patient passed through three Ebola-affected provinces on his journey to Nairobi.

The ministry maintains there is still no evidence of wider community spread, since every confirmed case so far traces directly back to people who were already under observation. "Being quarantined means the rest of her family and the general public is protected from exposure," Health Director-General Dr. Patrick Amoth said in the ministry's statement.

DR. BARBARA MUTTIMOS OF MSF URGED RESIDENTS TO BE "HONEST ABOUT THEIR EXPOSURES."

Kenya's cases are linked to a broader epidemic devastating the DRC, where more than 9,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak was detected in May, per Al Jazeera's reporting, making it the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record. Kenya has become the fourth country to register a case tied to that outbreak, after Uganda — declared Ebola-free in August — and an isolated case in a returning aid worker in France.

Authorities have ramped up screening nationwide, with more than 685,000 people screened since May and a dedicated arrivals gate set up at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for flights from the ten countries at the center of the outbreak. AP journalists observed enhanced screening at the Busia border crossing with Uganda, though some residents worry the measures won't catch everyone. "The government should find other ways of screening," Busia trader Richard Onyango told the AP, citing concerns about unofficial border crossings.

Kenya says it remains open for travel, trade and public gatherings, with no restrictions imposed despite the growing cluster. Health officials are set to meet with counterparts from the DRC, Uganda and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate how the virus crossed borders that have technically been closed since May. What happens with the three still-untraced contacts, and whether any case emerges outside the immediate family circle, will determine whether this stays a contained cluster or becomes Kenya's first sustained Ebola outbreak.