The United Kingdom has announced that travellers fully vaccinated with Chinese vaccines – Sinovac and Sinopharm – can travel to the country from November 22.
British High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr Christian Turner took to his official Twitter handle on Tuesday to announce the “good news” for Pakistani travellers.
The UK “adds Sinonvac, Sinopharm & Covaxin to the fully vaccinated list for inward travel Rules from 22 November,” he wrote.
According to the British government’s official travel guidelines, travellers must have had a complete course of one of the approved vaccines at least 14 days before they arrive in the UK. The other vaccines approved by the UK government are AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Sinovac, Sinopharm and Covaxin.
Earlier, those vaccinated with Sinovac or Sinopharm had to take a Covid PCR test within 3 days before travelling to England, book and pay for day 2 and day 8 Covid PCR tests after arriving in England and complete a passenger locator form.
Meanwhile, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Tuesday reviewed the progress of the nationwide vaccination drive, as well as the availability of vaccines with regards to future requirements. The session was attended by chief of NCOC Asad Umar, National Coordinator NCOC Major General Zafar Iqbal and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan.
Expressing satisfaction over the current stability of the curve, the forum appreciated the populace for their compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions, which ensured individual and collective well-being.
The meeting also paid tribute to front line healthcare workers – including doctors, paramedics, and nursing staff – who endangered their lives to save others from the hazards of the calamitous coronavirus. They also praised the media for its pivotal role in crisis communication and creating mass awareness for generating a desired public response.
Asad Umar appreciated the implementation of the vaccination drive but urged all federal units to avoid complacency as the threat of the virus remained.
The forum emphasised increasing the administration of the second jab against Covid to sufficiently raise the immunity level for long term dividends.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Covid-19 positivity rate dropped Tuesday to 0.94 percent for the first time since March last year, when the government started recording data on the pandemic. For the last three weeks, Pakistan has consistently reported a coronavirus positivity rate of less than 2% and less than 1,000 daily infections. The NCOC data showed that 400 people tested positive for the virus after 42,373 tests were taken. Eleven people, meanwhile, lost their lives to the virus and 277 recovered from it over the same period. With the total number of recoveries at 1,226,157, the number of active cases now stands at 22,845.
There have been 1,277,560 infections and 28,558 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began. The country has administered at least 111,967,455 doses of Covid vaccines so far.
