Photos: West Africa's Fight Against Ebola

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.

Medical staff working with Doctors Without Borders prepare to bring food to patients kept in an isolation area at the MSF Ebola treatment centre in Kailahun July 20, 2014.Tommy Trenchard/ReutersTommy Trenchard/ReutersProtective gear including boots, gloves, masks and suits, dry after being used in a treatment room in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia, July 24, 2014.Zoom Dosso/AFP/GettyMedical staff take a blood sample from a suspected Ebola patient at the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, July 10, 2014.Tommy Trenchard/ReutersA 10-year-old boy walks with a doctor from Christian charity, Samaritan's Purse, after being taken out of quarantine and receiving treatment following his mother's death caused by the ebola virus, in the group's Ebola treatment center, at the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia, on July 24, 2014.Zoom Dosso/AFP/GettyStaff of the Christian charity, Samaritan's Purse, put on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital of Monrovia on July 24, 2014.Zoom Dosso/AFP/GettyPeople unload protection and healthcare material under the supervision of a member of Doctors Without Borders on July 22, 2014 at Conakry's airport, to fight the spread of the Ebola virus and treat people who have been already infected.Cellou Binani/AFP/GettyHealth workers take blood samples for Ebola virus testing at a screening tent in the local government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, June 30, 2014. Tommy Trenchard/Reuters