No train tickets for unvaccinated people after Sep 15, announces Railways

LAHORE: Pakistan Railways on Tuesday announced that unvaccinated people would not be issued train tickets after September 15, besides also making COVID vaccination mandatory for the staff, ARY NEWS reported.

A spokesman for Pakistan Railways said that all trains are operating with 70 percent passengers and strict implementation on COVID SOPs.

“Besides strict implementation on the SOPs, we are also creating awareness among masses in this regard,” he said adding that posters and banners have been posted within the premises of the stations.

The railways official said that passengers should have received their first COVID jab by September 15 and should be fully vaccinated by October 15 to avail train services.

Pakistan Railways had previously put out a notification, calling for a 10pc Covid surcharge to be levied on unvaccinated passengers from September 1 to make up for “the heavy cost” the department is bearing on account of 70% occupancy and additional sanitization.

Besides, the railways said unvaccinated passengers aged above 20 years will not be allowed to travel by trains without showing their vaccination certificates from Jan 1, 2022 and there will be a complete ban on travel without vaccination from April 1, 2022.

However, the deadlines were later revised with the first dose mandatory until September 15, 2021 and the second dose by October 15, 2021.

All PR employees were also given until August 31 to get themselves inoculated against the deadly virus with a warning that their salaries will be withheld in case of failure to get vaccinated.