Pakistan tightens travel restrictions amid Omicron fears

Islamabad: The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) has imposed a complete ban on inbound travel from Category C countries after the detection and emergence of Omicron variant cases, said a statement on Monday.

The decision was taken after a meeting of the NCOC that took stock of the prevalent COVID-19 situation across the globe in order to revise the policy for categorization of air travel and the Category C list. 

According to NCOC notification, Pakistan has placed nine more countries in category C and banned inbound travel from these countries in a bid to protect Pakistan from the rapidly spreading new Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The countries include Netherland, Slovenia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Poland, Ireland, Hungary, and Croatia.

Earlier, a complete ban was imposed on inbound travel from South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, and Hong Kong.

On November 28, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued a new travel advisory for Category-C countries after the emergence of a new COVID variant 'Omicron', enlisting 17 countries including South Africa.

People from category C countries can travel to Pakistan only under specific NCOC guidelines.

Travel from these territories would be allowed only “on extreme emergency” and the travelers will be required to follow health and testing protocols which include Vaccination certificate, Negative PCR report and Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) on arrival

Pakistani travelers from these countries, till December 5, will be allowed without restrictions but with certain conditions. The above-mentioned protocols will remain in place.