Pakistan eases travel restrictions for India

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has removed India from the list of Category-c countries, after a significant decline in the number of coronavirus cases in the neighbouring country. A devastating rise in infections in April and May, driven largely by the more infectious and dangerous Delta variant, overwhelmed the healthcare system in India and killed at least 170,000 people in May alone. The situation prompted many countries including Pakistan to impose travel restrictions on the second-most Covid-19 affected country across the globe. However, the situation has considerably improved over the past couple of months. According to official data, only 38,667 new coronavirus infections were reported across India in the last 24 hours. Daily deaths owing to the pandemic on the other hand rose by 478, its health ministry said in a statement. Total cases rose to 32.12 million. The NCOC reviewed the Covid-19 situation around the world during a meeting on Saturday. The forum decided to keep Bangladesh, Ecuador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, South Africa, Thailand and Tunisia in the list of Category-c countries but decided to remove India from it. The NCOC said that passengers arriving from countries of any category would have to follow the testing protocols set by the Pakistani authorities. It said that Pakistanis travelling to Category-c countries for a short period can return to the country without any hindrance. “All countries, except the countries in Category-c, have been placed in Category-b,” it added. The NCOC further said that the new policy will be implemented with immediate effect and it will be reviewed on September 15. On the other hand, Pakistan reported 4,786 new cases of coronavirus during the last twenty-four hours, taking the tally for confirmed cases to 1,094,699, said the NCOC on Saturday. According to the NCOC data, at least 73 fatalities were also reported during the said period. A total of 24,339 patients have succumbed to the virus in the country so far. Moreover, 4,343 recoveries were also reported in a day, taking the total recoveries to 983,754. A day earlier, owing to difficulties being faced by Uae-bound passengers, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that the counters for conducting rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for Covid-19 have become functional at all international airports of the country. A spokesman for the authority said that the services of Uae-accredited Pakistani labs have been made available at the airports. The spokesperson said that the counters have started taking rapid PCR tests for the passengers departing from Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Quetta, Peshawar and Faisalabad airports. “Airport managers have been instructed by the CAA to provide all facilities and assistance to the passengers,” he further said.