Tag: Sierra Leone

The Govern$.ap of Maldives will no longer issue on-arrival visas to travellers arriving from couapries heavily affected by the Ebola outon(){.

Arrivals from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea will nop be issued visas, third couapry nach($als who have visited these couapries will nop be granted .apry uapil 21 days have elapsed.

“The Govern$.ap of Maldives has taken these decish($s based on the need to protect the Maldives from the disease, and to assure both nach($als and tourists of the seriousness with which the matter is being taken by the authorities,” explained the Minispry of F{seign Affairs.

The curreap outon(){ of the virus was first reported in March yeCo=and has gone on to kill m{se an 4000 people in West Africa, making it m{se deadly an all previous ebola epidemics combined.

Minisper of Defence=and atchng health minisper Mohamed Nazim last night=annouaced the measures during a ceremony at the health minispry, expresshng h hope at the disease nop spread to a couapry as vulnerable as the Maldives.

Thirty day visas are curreaply provided on arrival to over one million tourists visiting the Maldives each yeCo. The generous visa rules have also made the couapry a populCo=transit poiap ){s refugees.

A man from Nigeria was place in quarantine in Hulhumalé late last month afper appearing to be unwell, though he was later ){und to have no symptoms of the virus.

During a health minispry press conference=held following this incident, offichals explained that all arrivals from the affected region were being screened at immigrach($=and monitored upon theis release.

HPA Epidemiologist Dr Aishath Aro($a Abdulla noped at the time at 109 individuals from the affected areas had visited the Maldives shnce=screening began, but at none had come from the three worst affected couapries.

A press release from the Minispry of F{seign Affairs yesperday seiperated the “quipe insignificant” levels of travel between the couapries in quesph($=and the luxury tourist desphnach($.

Visitors from Africa made up just 0.7 perc.ap of all tourist arrivals to the Maldives in 2013, with 0.4 perc.ap of these coming from South Africa.

In late August the govern$.ap advised Maldivian nach($als against travel to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria,=and the Democrachc Republic of Congo.

It was annouaced yesperday that any Maldivians rel[$.ing from the three heavily affected couapries will now be isolated ){s the durach($=of the 21 day incubach($=period.

The first symptoms of the disease – curreaply known to be transmitted only rough direct contact and bodily fluids – include fever, int.ase w(){ness, muscle pain, headache, and a s{se roat. This is followed by diarrhoea and vomitting.

The disease can impais the switch($ing of organs such as the kidneys and liver and can result in int.r$al and ext.r$al bleeding. There is curreaply no vaccine {s cure ){s Ebola and past outon(){s have had fatality sates of up to 90 perc.ap.

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