Pakistan imposes complete travel ban on India amid virus surge

Taking to twitter, Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry announced that a complete travel ban has been implemented on India in wake of deteriorating situation of Covid-19 in the neighboring country.

“The ban has been enforced since the third week of April and was being fully implemented,” he added.

The information minister added that if Covid-19 situation continues to deteriorate, more drastic measures would be taken inside Pakistan and preparations are being made in this regard.

بھارت میں کرونا کی بگڑتی صورتحال کے پیش نظر بھارت سے آمدو رفت پر مکمل پابندی عائد ہے یہ پابندی اپریل کے تیسے ہفتے سے لاگو ہے اور اس مکمل عمدرآمد ہو رہا ہے، اگر کرونا کی صورتحال میں بہتری نہ آئ تو پاکستان کے اندر مزید سخت اقدامات کرنے پڑیں گے اس کیلئے تیاری کی جا رہی ہے

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 28, 2021

Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department of provincial governments Wednesday have notified imposition of a lockdown in a bid to contain the spread of novel coronavirus in 20 major cities.

According to an official notification, titled 'Input / Feedback — City Wise Lockdown', National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) stated that a two-week city-wise lockdown in cities with high disease prevalence is tentatively planned with effect from 2/3 May.

“Therefore, you are requested to carry out necessary planning at your end,” read notification.

A day prior, NCOC wrote letters to the provincial governments asking them to prepare for a two-week lockdown in 20 cities from May.

The list mentioned 20 cities where the lockdown is being planned includes Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Dir Lower, Mardan, Nowshera, Malakand, Charsadda, Swat, Swabi, Muzaffarabad, Sudhnuti, Poonch and Bagh.

Reportedly, all activities will be banned across the province from 6:00 pm to Sehri, whereas, the complete holiday will be observed on Saturday and Sunday (weekends) and the restrictions are being put in place that would be effective till May 17.

In wake of deadly third wave of Covid-19, all business activities will be closed on weekends. However, petrol pumps, medical stores, and vaccination centers will be exempted from the restrictions.

Moreover, office timings will be 9:00 am to 2:00 pm across the province.

The provincial government imposed a strict ban on all gyms, cinema halls

To contain the spread of global outbreak, the government allowed public transport to resume the facility for citizens with 50 percent of capacity and inter-provincial transport will be completed closed on Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, today Pakistan recorded 201 coronavirus-linked fatalities, country’s highest single-day death toll since May 2020, as the country continued to deal with the third wave of Covid-19.

As per NCOC, around 5,292 cases of coronavirus were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 17,530. The total number of confirmed cases reached to 810,231.

As many as 704,494 patients have recovered from the disease with 5,214 critical cases.