KARACHI – The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has notified an updated traveladvisory for incoming passengers amid mounting concerns over the spread ofa new and potentially more contagious Covid variant named Omicron.
Reports in local media said the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Sundayreleased a fresh travel advisory for Category C countries and has enlisted17 states in the list including South Africa, Hong Kong, Iraq, Namibia, andUkraine.
A notification issued by the aviation regulator stated that the passengerscoming from the countries categorized into C would require permission fromthe National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC).
“They would have to compulsorily provide evidence of full Covid-19vaccination,” the notification further cited.
For Pakistani citizens, CAA said the passengers can return home untilDecember 05 without formal permission while a negative PCR test report,conducted 72 hours before travel, will be compulsory. Furthermore, testingand quarantine rules will be applicable to the passengers on arrival to theSouth Asian country.
On Friday, Asad Umar, the chief of Pakistan’s top monitoring body on Covid,announced a travel ban on seven countries after the emergence of a newstrain of the novel virus.
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NCOC chief confirmed the restrictions on travel from six South Africancountries and Hong Kong and stressed that the emergence of the new variantfurther underscores the urgency to vaccinate all eligible citizens.New travel bans take effect globally to curb mutated Covid variant
Many of the countries have enforced stern travel restrictions as theOmicron Covid variant kept spreading around the world, with 13 cases foundin the Netherlands and two each in Denmark and Australia.
The discovery of the ‘variant of concern’ has triggered alarm as a numberof major events have been called off. WHO in a statement said it wasdesignating the variant, named omicron, as being “of concern”, a label isonly given to four variants to date.
Earlier, the US announced to restrict travel from South Africa, where thenew mutation first surfaced – and neighboring countries, effective fromMonday (today) while Canada also said it was closing its borders to thesame countries, following bans on flights announced by Britain, theEuropean Union and others.
