COVID testing at airports to start again

After almost a year of relaxing the rules, COVID testing at airports are starting to make a comeback. This time however the rule applies to people arriving in Pakistan from abroad rather to the Pakistanis travelling within the country or internationally.

The COVID testing was relaxed in February 2022 by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on the condition that the passengers coming in Pakistan must be vaccinated. Now with the increased cases of COVID in China and its new variant springing to life, the restrictions have been put in place once again. In China, it was witnessed that with the advent of this new COVID variant, the government had implemented a lockdown which was later on eased due to protest by the people. That caused a huge outbreak of COVID cases in the country.

On December 28, The Border Health Services department issued a notification regarding stricter checks for all arriving passengers. Two percent passengers on every flight will be chosen at random for a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT). The passengers would be checked based on if you showed any symptoms such as flu or cough or at random. The RAT may not be as accurate as a PCR but gives the results quickly which could cause lesser chaos at the airports.