The death toll from the virus in the DRC previously stood at 360, while the number of confirmed Ebola cases amounted to 545, according to the ministry.
"Ebola — the situation on Wednesday, January 2, 2019: a total of 608 cases (560 confirmed and 48 possible), 368 [people] died and 207 have recovered," the DRC Ministry of Public Health wrote on Twitter.
The Ebola virus is transmitted to humans from wild animals and is estimated by the World Health Organization to have a 50-percent fatality rate. Ebola is named after the DRC's Ebola River, near which the virus was discovered by Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot and his team in 1976.
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