Ebola Outbreak
Medical staff working with Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) put on their protective gear before entering an isolation area at the MSF Ebola treatment centre in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, on July 20. REUTERS/Tommy Trenchard

DAKAR (Reuters) - Liberia announced on Wednesday the closure of all schools across the country and the quarantine of a number of communities in a bid to halt the worst Ebola outbreak on record spreading across West Africa.

Security forces across the country have been ordered to enforce the new measures, part of a new action plan that included placing all non-essential government workers on 30-day compulsory leave.

As of July 23, Liberia had recorded 129 of the 672 deaths blamed on Ebola across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according figures released by the World Health Organisation.

Medicine