ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday placed travel ban on nine more countries, adding them to a list of Category C countries in order to try to contain the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the new entrants to the Category C list include Croatia, Hungary, Netherlands, Ukraine, Ireland, Slovenia, Vietnam, Poland and Zimbabwe. While South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia and Hong Kong were already placed in the list.
The Omicron variant has been detected in several more countries, prompting nervous governments to impose tough travel restrictions to try to keep it at bay while scientists race to establish how dangerous it might be.
Just last week, Hong Kong widened its ban on non-residents entering the city to include visitors who have been to Australia, Canada, Israel or six European countries in the past 21 days.
While Japan, which although has not yet detected any Omicron infections, said it was reimposing border controls.
According to an NCOC update, the health and testing protocols for inbound travel from Category C nations include a complete ban on inbound travel from Category C countries.
It said “essential” travel from these countries would require an exemption certificate from a dedicated exemption committee with health protocols in place.
The protocols would entail one to be fully vaccinated, with all passengers, six-year and above, to have a negative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test report — maximum 48 hours prior to departure.
In addition, passengers who have the required exemption would undergo a rapid antigen test (RAT) on arrival and only negative RAT passengers would be allowed to proceed.
For countries in Category B — Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, Azerbaijan, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Russia, the USA, the UK, Thailand, France, Austria, Afghanistan and Turkey — all inbound passengers are required to be fully vaccinated.
Furthermore, passengers from these nations are also required to have a negative PCR test (maximum 48 hours old).
The NCOC said health authorities will also conduct random RAT testing of passengers coming from Category B countries.
“RAT negative cases will be allowed to proceed. RAT positive cases will be quarantined for 10 days,” the body said.
“RT-PCR test of all RAT positive quarantined passengers will be undertaken on the eight day of quarantine. In case of a negative result, pax will be allowed to proceed home.
However, in case of a positive result, the passenger will either undergo additional quarantine period or will be shifted to hospital as per the advice of health authorities.”
For countries in Category A, all visitors should be fully vaccinated with the same PCR requirements as their counterparts in the B and C categories.
The forum also approved a number of guidelines to “facilitate the return” of Pakistanis stranded abroad.
According to the statement, all Pakistanis can travel from category C countries till December 15. However, the health protocols will be applicable to them.
Pakistanis who were unable to get themselves vaccinated abroad because of certain conditions, including expired visa or illegal immigration, pending court cases, medical conditions, pregnancy or partial vaccination from Pakistan, have been exempted from the requirement to be fully vaccinated, provided they provide proof to airline and immigration authorities prior to boarding, the government body said.
Pakistan on Monday reported 336 new infections of Covid-19 after conducting 42,944 tests, receiving back a positivity ratio of 0.78 percent.
With the emergence of latest cases, confirmed infections reached 1,287,161 against 1,246,464 recoveries and 28,777 deaths, leaving 11,920 active cases behind.
