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![Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had earlier called for international assistance to get the outbreak under control [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/225716483_8-e1406959981564.jpg)
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had earlier called for international assistance to get the outbreak under control [Xinhua]
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, who had in August called on her citizenry to take the Ebola threat seriously and imposed quarantine zones in the capital Monrovia and beyond, said the lifting of the state of emergency was due to sufficient progress to “sustain the fight against the virus until it is finally eradicated from our country”.
She ordered the reopening of marketplaces and stores, which had been closed for months, but has not yet made a decision on when to allow schools to accept students again.
However, she said in a televised address that she wanted the youth of the country put to good use and have them clean schools and other facilities.
Liberia, along with Guinea and Sierra Leone, was the hardest hit of West African nations.
As Sirleaf was addressing her countrymen, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that there had been more than 13,300 people hospitalized because of the Ebola virus. Of these, more than 5,160 had died.
Liberia’s death toll was more than half that figure – nearly 2,900 deaths out of more than 6,800 reported cases.
On Thursday, WHO reported that the death toll in neighboring Mali had now reached four.
The international medical body also listed 320 Ebola-related deaths among healthcare workers out of a total 564 infected.
Source: Agencies
