Reviewing Pakistan's red list status, British PM Boris Johnson tells envoy  

LONDON: Pakistan’s High Commissioner in London Moazzam Ahmad Khan on Saturday called on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to raise the issue of Pakistan’s presence on the red list citing a spike in the COVID-19 case, ARY NEWS reported.

The British prime minister said that they were reviewing COVID-19 statistics to mull over if the country could be removed from the red list.

“We continuously review changes in the red list,” Boris Johnson conveyed it to the Pakistani high commissioner amid hopes that the country would be removed from the list soon.

Pakistan had been placed on the red list in early April 02 and India on April 19 due to a spike in COVID-19 cases and detection of the Delta variant following the UK’s ‘traffic light’ system for international travel.

British lawmakers have also criticised their government for keeping Pakistan on its ‘red list’ whilst promoting India to the ‘amber list’ for international travel despite a clear difference in the COVID-19 situation in both countries.

The criticism was launched by some British MPs following updated travel listings issued by the UK government where Pakistan and other countries were placed on high-risk countries’ red list while India will be promoted to medium risk countries’ ‘amber list’ from August 8 along with Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).