Schools re-open in Liberia – a sign that Ebola outbreak is waning

Schools have re-opened in Liberia for the first time after a six-month hiatus designed to stem the spread of the worst Ebola outbreak in history – in a sign that the outbreak is waning.

Many students said they had grown tired of sitting at home and were glad to be back at school. A few, though, remained a bit fearful about returning even though there are just a handful of Ebola cases left in the country that once saw 100 new patients a week.

Neighboring Guinea reopened most of its schools in January, but some parents have withdrawn children amid rumors schools were infected with the virus. Sierra Leone hopes to open schools by the end of next month.

In Liberia, some of about a million enrolled students have been following lessons by radio. “Authorities in the three countries are looking at catch-up sessions and cancelling some school vacations.

Nearly 9,200 people have died since the first Ebola deaths in rural Guinea in December 2013.

The leaders of the three countries – Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Guinea’s Alpha Conde and Sierra Leone’s Ernest Bai Koroma have pledged at a meeting in Guinea’s capital Conakry on Sunday to achieve zero Ebola infections within the next60 days.