Pakistan may ban air travel for unvaccinated people from Aug.1

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Unvaccinated people will not be allowed to travel by air starting from Aug.1, Pakistan's top emergency and crisis body announced on Friday.

The emergency body also declared it mandatory for adult students to get vaccinated by Aug.31.

Asad Umar, Federal Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives in charge of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said that there are clear signs of a fourth coronavirus wave starting in Pakistan. 

"Two weeks ago, I tweeted that our AI model may have a fourth wave. There are now clear signs of the beginning of the fourth wave. Non-compliance with standard operating procedures and a worrying proliferation of options, especially in India, are the main reasons," he said.

Umar added that field reports were showing a complete disregard of the condition of vaccinated people attending family weddings and visiting restaurants and gyms.

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“If the owners of these properties do not take responsibility and do not guarantee compliance, they have no choice but to close them,” he said.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus positivity rate in Pakistan is nearing 3% compared to 2.97 positivity rate of the previous wave.

The death toll from the global coronavirus pandemic in Pakistan rose to 22,520 after 25 more people lost their lives due to the virus.

During the last 24 hours, the most deaths occurred in Sindh followed by Punjab. Out of the 25 deaths, 16 people died on ventilators.

According to the NCOC statistics, 47,528 coronavirus tests were conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, of which 1,737 came back positive. This is the third day of more than 1,500 daily new cases.

There has been a steady increase in the coronavirus positivity rate. The current rate is 3.65%.

The total number of deaths has reached 963,660.

In addition to this, the total number of recoveries has reached 911,383, while the number of active cases have gone up to 35,573.