Canada suspends issuance of visas to Ebola-hit African countries

, Nov 1:

has suspended issuance of visas to residents of West African countries with "widespread and persistent-intense transmission" of

virus disease, a media report said Friday.

The Canadian government has stopped issuing visas in the worker, student or visitor class and won't issue any pending permanent residency visas for people from those countries either. Any applications already in the system will also not be processed at this time, Xinhua quoted Canada TV as saying.

According to the latest figures issued by the World Health Organisation, at least 13,567 people have been infected with the virus since the Ebola outbreak in March 2014, and 4,951 people have died.

The only nations which currently meet the definition of countries with widespread and persistent, intense transmission are Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

IANS