Pakistan restricts travel from eight more countries

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Monday announced to include eight more countries in the ‘C’ category, which restricts travelling from those countries, over fear of the emergence of a new coronavirus variant.

The fresh eight countries include six European countries, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. Earlier, Pakistan had restricted six African countries and Hong Kong over a new Covid-19 variant, Omicron.

“Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Hong Kong, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and Botswana are now included in category C,” NCOC said in a statement.

Read more: Omicorn variant: Pakistan imposes travel restrictions on six African countries

This decision was taken by the NCOC in a meeting chaired by the organisation’s chief and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar.

“Urgent travel from these countries to Pakistan will only be possible after getting a no-objection certificate from the special committee,” said the NCOC adding that all the passengers coming to Pakistan must be vaccinated.

The NCOC said all  Pakistanis and foreigners above six-year-old will need to show result of the PCR test conducted within 48 hours before boarding the flight.

Read more: Study shows Omicron may pickup genetic code with common cold coronavirus

Earlier, the NCOC had directed the Aviation Division, airport management, and the Airport Security Force to devise a mechanism for screening passengers travelling from the category C countries via indirect flights and share its details with all the relevant departments.