Pakistan imposes complete travel ban on Covid-19 variant countries

KARACHI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Saturday notified a new list of countries distributed into three categories to deal with their passengers accordingly in view of coronavirus pandemic, ARY News reported.

The director of air transport of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Irfan Sabir has notified the modified list of countries placed into three categories.

The CAA has updated its category C for international travel and added four more countries to the list. South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Ghana, Kenya, Rawanda, Peru, Mozambique, Columbia, Comoros, Tanzania and Brazil were the new countries included in category C.

“There will be a complete travel ban on inbound travel to Pakistan from Category C countries including withdrawal of exemptions earlier provided to Pakistan passport holders, NICOP and POC holders,” reads the notification.

United Kingdom has been delisted from Category C countries and added into Category B.

According to CAA, the new travel restrictions have been imposed in continuation to the steps being taken to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The international passengers from Category A countries will not be required to undergo a COVID-19 test. However, the passengers who are arriving in Pakistan from Category B countries will need to undergo a PCR test not more than 72 hours before departure.

The notification further stated that the categorised country list concerning inbound travel to Pakistan will be effective from March 23 to April 5.

The rest of Covid SOPs will remain the same and their implementation will be mandatory, CAA said today.