Pakistan bans Indian passengers amid COVID upsurge

In a meeting of the NCOC, it was decided to include India in the Category C countries for two weeks.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Federal Minister and NCOC head Asad Umar.

A statement issued by the NCOC said that the restriction has been imposed on travellers coming from India both via road and air, the NCOC said, adding that the nuclear neighbour has been placed on Category C for two weeks — a category for countries whose passengers cannot travel to Pakistan.

However, a meeting will be held on April 21 to review the Category C countries given the rise in COVID cases in India.

"The meeting was briefed on the coronavirus variant [....] the new variant is the reason behind the spread of coronavirus in India," the statement said.

India registers 96,982 new coronavirus cases, 446 fatalities in the past 24 hours. The nationwide tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 1,26,86,049 while the toll increased to 1,65,547, the health ministry data showed.