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EspañolSeveral Caribbean nations have begun to enforce a travel ban on countries hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak.
The St. Kitts and Nevis government will no longer allow people from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea to enter the country. According to an official statement, the travel ban will also apply to those who have visited these countries within the past 21 days.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Kenny Anthony of Saint Lucia announced they will also close their borders to people from Ebola-affected areas. In addition, people coming from Nigeria to Saint Lucia will require medical documentation that demonstrates they are not infected with Ebola.
“Despite the fact that the President of Nigeria has declared that Nigeria is Ebola free, visitors from Nigeria will be required to present a recent medical certificate which clears him/her of the virus, in addition to a visa, to be allowed entry into Saint Lucia,” he said. “Our own people need and require protection and I regret that we have to take that decision, but we had no choice based on the circumstances,” Anthony told a local newspaper.
The governments of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana have announced they will also impose similar bans.
Jamaica’s ban extends to people who have visited Ebola-affected countries within the last four weeks. The government of Trinidad and Tobago has gone further by extending the ban to anyone coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in addition to Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, or Sierra Leone.
Trinidad, an island nation of 1.3 million inhabitants, also announced that it will quarantine anyone who has visited any of these countries in the last six weeks for at least 21 days.
According to a World Health Organization report, a total of “8,997 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been reported in seven affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, and the United States of America) up to the end of October 12. There have been 4,493 deaths.”
Source: Caribbean Journal.
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