People flock to beaches, nightclubs and restaurants of Freetown and beyond as country parties hard into the night for first time in more than a year

Celebrations broke out all over Sierra Leone at the weekend after a ban on public gatherings prompted by the outbreak of Ebola more than a year ago was lifted.

Sierra Leoneans were allowed to go to sporting events and nightclubs, and stay out in restaurants after 9pm, following the decision by the president, Ernest Bai Koroma, to lift the ban on Friday. Some partied hard into the night, while others played football on the beaches and flocked to makeshift cinemas to watch the Manchester United and Arsenal matches.

Adonis Assaf, a 21-year-old student enjoying a walk on Lumley beach in the capital, Freetown, said: “I feel great, I feel like I was locked up in a cage for the past year. It’s so nice to be out.”

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Like all students, he has missed a year’s education, as schools were also closed under the emergency measures put in place last summer. Assaf said: “I was supposed to go to college last year to study law. I’m looking forward to be able to do that now.”

Further down the coast, four young women gathered for a drink at a beach bar. Jessica Kennick said: “This is the happiest day of our lives. We give thanks to our president.” But her friend, Martha Panda, struck a more cautious note and warned: “We won’t have peace of mind until Ebola is gone. Then we can touch anybody and have our freedom.”

Though Koroma lifted the ban on public gatherings, he extended the state of emergency and some key restrictions, including on traditional burials and Sunday markets. The president said: “The easing of restrictions is not a sign that Ebola is over. It is not. The risk has receded but Ebola has not fully retreated.”

Although life appears to be back to normal in Freetown, there is a widespread recognition that the country cannot relax until it is free of Ebola for 42 days.

Currently, there are two positive cases in the Tonkolili district, after a man carrying the virus breached a quarantine in the Magazine Wharf slum in Freetown last month. But everyone he has been in contact with is being monitored under quarantine and the International Medical Corps said on Monday that both patients were doing well.

The fight against the virus is still evident on the streets of the capital, where posters exhort the public to be vigilant. One says: “Together we can get Ebola down to zero.” Another reminds people: “Do not touch dead bodies.”

The epidemic has claimed the lives of 3,585 people since the first case last May. Ten of the country’s 14 districts have been Ebola-free for more than 100 days and many treatment units have already been shut down as facilities are consolidated to deal with the lingering hot spots in the north of the country.

The ministry of health said: “Even though the country is now recording zeros, we still have more than 80 high-risk contacts.

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“We must therefore brace ourselves for more positive cases and continue to push on together to eradicate this menace from our country.”

There are also emerging efforts to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder in many of the victims and survivors.

Dr Foday Sahr, the government’s principal doctor in the Ebola emergency response, said: “Psychologically, it really hit us. The morale of the country was down. Nothing was functioning for one-and-a-half years. It is still not functioning. Ebola has taken a big toll on our doctors and nurses.”

He called on the international community to continue to provide support: “We still have a lot of work to do on recovery and we cannot do it alone. If we work together, we can achieve more. Everybody is tired and wants to see the back of Ebola and get on with our lives.”

Sahr said he would not rest until the country was 90 days free of the virus – rather than the 42 days the World Health Organisation has said is sufficient to be declared Ebola-free.

He said: “Look at Liberia. It went seven weeks without the virus and then there was a case. We have to maintain vigilance for some time.”

• This article was amended on 11 August 2015 to clarify that a quarantine was breached in a Freetown slum.