Pakistan imposes new restrictions for inbound flights

According to the new CAA advisory, starting from August 9, a COVID test has been made mandatory for children aged 6-year-old and above coming to Pakistan.

In the new travel advisory, the CAA said all inbound passengers of age six years and above will be required to possess a valid negative PCR test result conducted within 72 hours before commencement of travel to Pakistan.

"All arriving passengers of age 6 years and above will be tested through rapid antigen testing upon arrival in Pakistan," the travel advisory said.

Per the officials, 6-year-old passengers will have to undergo rapid antigen tests at Pakistani airports, and children between the ages of 6 and 12 will be quarantined at home if they test positive.

While travellers over the age of 12 will have to be quarantined at the health department centre.

"Considering the volatile nature of the COVID-19 situation, any or all arriving passengers may also be subjected to additional stipulations as mandated by the relevant health authorities upon arrival in Pakistan," the advisory added.

On the other hand, nurses and health technicians will be deployed at major airports of the country for 3 months.

The Ministry of Health has decided to take further steps to contain the outspread of COVID at the airports of Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan and Sialkot.

According to National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), around 3,582 cases of coronavirus were reported while 67 people succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 23,529. The total number of confirmed cases reached 1,043,277.

As many as 944,375 patients have recovered from the disease with 3,398 critical cases.

Punjab

The number of patients swelled to 358,387 in the province with 11,083 causalities.

Sindh

The number of infections has surged to 387,261 in the province, while the death toll has reached 6,057.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The confirmed cases have surged to 145,306 in the province with 4,477 casualties.

Balochistan

There are 30,627 confirmed cases while 328 patients have died from the infection so far.

AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan

There are 25,034 coronavirus cases in the AJK while the death toll has reached 633. On the other hand, there are 8,318 cases in GB with 147 coronavirus deaths.

Islamabad

There are 88,344 cases in the capital city while 804 people have lost their lives.