Liberia schools reopen amid Ebola recovery

Children have returned to Liberia's schools, washing their hands and having their temperatures taken amid a cautious Ebola recovery.

Children have begun returning to school in Liberia after lessons were delayed for months by the deadly Ebola outbreak, as the country began to turn the page on the crisis.

The new school term began on Monday, a day after the leaders of Liberia and Sierra Leone, in their first trips abroad since the peak of the epidemic, vowed at a summit in Guinea to eradicate the virus by mid-April.

"Here in Monrovia children were coming back to school today. We went to one school this morning and saw how the school has implemented the protocols," a UNICEF spokeswoman told AFP.

"The youth were washing their hands before entering the school premises and their temperature was checked. The teachers were also talking to the students about how to stay safe, and Ebola preventive measures."

UNICEF has been at the forefront of introducing safety measures to combat the spread of the virus, which has claimed more than 9000 lives across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

All three countries have seen dramatic drop in infections compared with the peak of the epidemic in September and October.

Guinea's President Alpha Conde and his Liberian and Sierra Leone counterparts Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Ernest Bai Koroma made a pledge to achieve "zero Ebola infections within 60 days" after day-long talks in the Guinean capital Conakry on Sunday.

Optimism that the worst is over has been tempered in Sierra Leone and Guinea, however, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) reporting the number of new Ebola cases rising for the second week running.

Transmission remains "widespread" in Guinea, which had 65 new confirmed cases in the week to February 8, and in Sierra Leone, which reported 76, according to the WHO.

Liberia, which has recorded the most deaths and was hardest hit at the peak of the epidemic in September and October, is leading the recovery, reporting just three new confirmed cases in that same week.