Pakistani travellers stranded in ‘C category’ countries allowed to return home

Islamabad: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Pakistan’s nerve centre monitoring COVID-19 situation, on Tuesday announced the lifting of ban on all Pakistanis stranded in the countries that fall in ‘C Category’ and allowed them to return to Pakistan by December 31.

Those Pakistani nationals who have either a valid National Identity Card of Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) or Pakistan Origin Card (POC) can travel to Pakistan without exemption, said the NCOC in a tweet on Tuesday.

They, however, have to provide proof of vaccination, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test and pre-boarding (maximum 48 hours) and mandatory quarantine (for countries hit with Omicron variant), the NCOC made it clear.

According to the NCOC, the following countries fall in the ‘C’ category list: Croatia, Hungary, Netherlands, Ukraine, Ireland, Slovenia, Vietnam, Poland, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia.

Travel is banned from these countries but under certain conditions and after fulfilling some requirements travellers can be allowed.

The NCOC has also noted that since vaccinations for ages 15 to 18 had not started in some countries, the condition of mandatory full vaccination for that age group was being extended from December 1 to January 31.

Last week, the NCOC had added nine more countries to Category C while reviewing the global COVID-19 situation amid fears of Omicron’s global spread.

It had allowed stranded Pakistanis to return till Dec 15.

Pakistan a day earlier (Monday) confirmed its first case of Omicron variant detected in Karachi.

75pc population of Islamabad completely vaccinated

Among the cities whose eligible populations are largely vaccinated against COVID-19, Islamabad stands first as according to the official data more than 90 per cent of its eligible citizens have been partially and 75 per cent fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

As many as 1.4 million out of the 1.6 million vaccine-eligible residents of the federal capital have been partially or fully vaccinated against COVID-19, confirmed District Health Officer of Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia. District Health Officer (DHO) Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia further said that 2.25 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered.

There are 1.6 million vaccine-eligible people in the city out of whom 1.4 million have been partially or fully vaccinated and around 1.2 million fully vaccinated, he said.

3 deaths, 250 new infections

Pakistan on Tuesday reported a drop in daily deaths because of COVID-19, three casualties.

According to the NCOC, out of 36,944 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, 250 returned positive, registering 0.67 per cent positivity rate.

Pakistan’s toll due to COVID-19 has climbed to 28,839 while after 175 recoveries from COVID-19 in one day, the country’s total recoveries stand at 1,251,584. On the other hand the tally of cases in the country is still as high as 1,289,543.

There are currently 9,120 active cases of COVID-19 in the country, the NCOC data further reveals.