Canada bans flights from India, Pakistan for 30 days over COVID-19 fears

As per details, Canadian Ministers of health, immigration, transport, public safety, and intergovernmental affairs announced the news in a joint press conference Thursday evening as the government faces pressure to contain the spread of novel coronavirus.

The ban is a part of stricter measures to combat coronavirus as Pakistan and India continue to report surge in Covid-19 cases.

The ban came into effect at 11:30 Thursday. However, it does not affect cargo flights in both regions.

Transport Minister of Canada Omar Alghabra said that the country is imposing the temporary ban as more passengers in Canada arrived with positive test results from these two countries.

Following the joint press conference the Health Minister Patty Hajdu said, “The temporary ban will allow Canada’s public health experts to collect more data about the epidemiology in those regions”.

Meanwhile, Canada does not have any direct flights from Brazil where cases are also surging.

A day prior to ban, India gained the dubious distinction of breaking a world record for most infections in a day as more than 314,000 people tested positive for the coronavirus on  as the country battles a vicious surge of the pandemic.

Total 2,104 people lost their lives on the same day, taking the official death toll to 184,657 fatalities and the total number of official infections in India now stands at 15.93 million.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has reported 144 deaths and 5,870 new cases of coronavirus in one day as the third wave of the pandemic continued to rage across the country.

The total number of confirmed cases in Pakistan has reached to 784,108.

On April 20, Hong Kong also suspended direct flights from India and Pakistan for two weeks over coronavirus concerns.