ISLAMABAD: Following continuous decline in coronavirus positivity ratio and infections, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Wednesday, revised inbound passenger policy with declaring full Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for all travellers arriving in Pakistan effective from February 24 (today).
The NCOC also abolished “pre-boarding negative PCR” for fully-vaccinated inbound passengers.
A NCOC statement also said that non-vaccinated individuals aged 12 and above will still require a negative PCR test before their flight, a maximum of 72 hours old.
“With effect from 24 Feb 22, requirement of negative PCR report for passengers travelling to Pakistan has been abolished for fully vaccinated travellers,” a notification issued by the NCOC said.
According to the NCOC, inbound travellers aged below 12 are exempted from compulsory vaccination, whereas, passengers aged 12-18 can avail the exemption from vaccination till March 31 this year.
The NCOC also announced that rapid tests will be conducted for deportees and non-vaccinated pedestrians at border terminals and those found Covid-19 positive will be quarantined for 10 days.
The NCOC has taken the following health/ testing protocols: (i) Pre-boarding negative PCR has been abolished for fully vaccinated inbound travellers. (ii) However, non-vaccinated individuals over 12 years will require pre-boarding negative PCR (72 hours old). (iii) Mandatory full vaccination for all inbound passengers. (iv) Passengers below 12 years of age are exempted from mandatory vaccination. (v) Passengers between 12-18 years of age are allowed to travel without mandatory vaccination till March 31, 2022. (vi) Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) on arrival for deportees and non-vaccinated pedestrians at Border Terminals; Positive cases will be home quarantined for 10x days.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s daily Covid-19 death toll in the past 24 hours has witnessed a hike again after several days of decline as 43 people succumbed to the Covid-19. The country’s daily death count remained below the 40 mark for the last five days.
As per latest statistics, the new coronavirus deaths have taken the country’s total number of Covid-19 deaths to 30,096 since pandemic outbreak.
The NCOC said 41,744 diagnostic tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, of which, 1,232 returned positive reflecting a positivity ratio of 2.95 percent.
After the emergence of 1,232 fresh Covid-19 cases the overall case count of Pakistan has reached to 1,503,873.
Meanwhile, 3,154 people infected with coronavirus recovered in the past 24 hours taking the overall recoveries to 1,409,515. Moreover, according to the NCOC, at present, there are a total 64,262 active coronavirus cases in the country, of which, 1,230 are in critical condition.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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