Daily Times

Pakistan is set to increase all inbound international flights from the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, China, and Malaysia from July 1 amid a drop in Covid-19 cases across the country.

“Amid overall improvement of Covid-19 situation in various parts of the world and current disease situation in the country, Pakistan has gradually normalised inbound international air travel,” the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the federal body dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, said in a notification. “Direct flights operation…will be increased up to 40 percent [percent] of normal volume,” it added. However, a ruling on outbound travel has yet to be issued. Pakistan reduced inbound flights by almost 80 percent in May to help stem a spike in Covid-19 cases amid the third wave of the outbreak, but the government has been operating repatriation flights to bring home citizens stuck abroad amid the pandemic.

On Monday, Pakistan reported 20 Covid-19 deaths, the lowest fatality count registered in a single day since the third wave of the outbreak in March. The NCOC data further showed that 44,496 coronavirus tests had been conducted across the country in the past 24 hours, of which 914 people had tested positive for the disease, taking the total tally to 955,657 infections and 22,231 deaths since last year. In recent months, the country has ramped up its vaccination programme with more than 14.7 million doses administered since the start of the nationwide inoculation campaign in March this year.