Daily Times

World Health Organisation Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom lauded Pakistan’s response against the coronavirus pandemic and ‘recognised the positive trend of virus curtailment’ in the country, Federal Minister Asad Umar said on Monday.

The minister posted on his Twitter handle that Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke to the WHO DG and urged him to formulate travel rules without any discrimination for all the countries in the light of the coronavirus pandemic “PM asked WHO to develop travel guidelines to be adopted by all countries to ensure that low income countries are not discriminated against in global travel,” he said.

An official statement said that the prime minister called upon the WHO to play its role in engaging member states to remove Covid-19 related travel restrictions for Pakistan and other developing countries and to work towards a data driven system of non-discriminatory travel rules. He observed that travel restrictions imposed by the developed countries in the wake of Covid-19 could further exacerbate economic difficulties of developing countries struggling to mitigate adverse economic impact of the pandemic. While noting progress made by Pakistan in containing the spread of virus, the WHO appreciated the steps taken by the government of Pakistan in fighting the pandemic.

The prime minister appreciated the support extended by WHO to the international community including Pakistan to fight Covid-19. He also highlighted Pakistan’s strategy of deploying scientific and data-driven interventions as well as rapid upgrades of healthcare facilities while attempting to maintain a balance between life and livelihood that had yielded positive results with a current downward trajectory in the spread of pandemic. Dr Tedros Adhanom said that WHO is working to suggest Covid-19 related travel guidelines to help the international community in making decisions.