Five PIA flights allowed to land after international operations halted

KARACHI: The federal authorities on Saturday give special permission to the Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) five flights to land at the country’s airports after suspension of all incoming international flights to the country as part of precautionary measures to stem coronavirus.

The flights that have been permitted to land in Pakistan include PK-792 (Birmingham – Islamabad), PK 702 (Manchester – Islamabad), PK-786 (London – Islamabad), PK788 (London – Karachi) and PK-722 (Oslo – Islamabad).

It is to mention here that PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif is returning to the country via PIA’s Islamabad-bound flight (PK-786) which is slated to depart from Heathrow airport at 16:40 (GMT) on Saturday and is expected to land in Islamabad at 5:30 am on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the federal government suspended all international flights coming into Pakistan for two weeks.

All incoming international flights have been suspended for two weeks with effect 8 pm tonight.

90 new cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) were detected in Sindh today, taking the total number of cases to 357 in Sindh and 666 in Pakistan.

Sindh Minister for Health and Population Welfare Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said so far 2,700 tests have been carried out for COVID-19 in the province, of these tests, 101 were declared as positive in Karachi, one in Hyderabad and 255 in Sukkur where pilgrims took tests for the disease after returning from Iran via Taftan.