Liberia has postponed the reopening of schools closed due to an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 8,600 people over the past 13 months, the education ministry said Monday.
Initially planned for Monday, the reopening was postponed by two weeks to February 16, education ministry spokesman Maxim Bleetan told dpa.
“Schools have yet to get health and sanitation kits, like hand-washing buckets and thermometres to test temperature,” said Bleetan. “We want to ensure a safe learning environment for our children.”
Neighbouring Guinea, where the outbreak started in December 2013, reopened schools on January 19 after the number of new infections slowed substantially and a national Ebola commission published security guidelines to protect children and teenagers from infection.
Liberia has been one of the countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak, with 8,478 reported cases and 3,605 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The number of people who have become infected with Ebola in the last 13 months has reached 21,724 worldwide, according to WHO.
GNA
