The Guinea government announced on Saturday the approval of the wider use of the Japanese anti-Ebola experimental drug after it showed promising results in initial trials.

"We have decided to broaden the use of this drug. It will only be available in the Ebola Treatment Units, not the hospitals," Sakoba Keita, coordinator of Guinea's Ebola response, said in a press release.

The government's approval came after reports that the number of people infected with Ebola has doubled the past week bringing the total number to 53 as of Friday. The local health officials documented 1,900 deaths out of 3,000 confirmed cases since the outbreak began in their region, Reuters reported.

Based on the draft obtained by the New York Times, the Japanese anti-Ebola drug Avigan, or favipiravir, inhibits the virus from multiplying and was found to cut the risk of death by 30 percent in patients with low to moderate levels of Ebola. The drug was tested on 69 patients older than14 since December.

The researchers said the recovery rates of those who received Avigan were better than those from a center run by Doctors Without Borders in Guéckédou, Guinea. The researchers said that the Ebola drug is most effective when administered within two to three days of showing influenza-like symptoms.

"The results are encouraging in a certain phase of the disease," Dr. Sakoba Keita, director of disease control for the Guinean Ministry of Health, said in a phone interview with the New York Times.

After the successful trial in Gueckedou and Nzerekore, Avigan is now being distributed in Coyah and soon in Conakry.