Pakistan places temporary restrictions on travelers from UK

Pakistan on Monday joined a slew of countries to close their borders to Britain over fears of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, heightening global panic and causing travel chaos.

A meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) placed a temporary restriction on inbound travellers from the UK (direct or indirect) into Pakistan that will come into effect on the midnight of December 22 (i.e. 00:00 hours Dec 23) and last until the midnight of Dec 29, according to a commique sent to the Civil Aviation Authority by the Aviation Division.

The restriction will apply to all persons who start their travel from the UK and are in or have been in the UK over the past 10 days, said the letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com.

Transit passengers who do not leave the airside in the UK from destinations other than the UK will be allowed entry into Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistani passport holders who have travelled to the UK on visitor/temporary visas will be allowed to return to the country with the following arrangements:

• A negative PCR test, conducted within 72 hours prior to flight, will be required
• PCR test on arrival in Pakistan under arrangement with the Directorate of Central Health Establishment or regional health staff. Passengers will be required to stay in the airport or in a government facility until the PCR test is taken
• Mandatory enforced home quarantine for seven days
• Trace and test will be applied to all passengers who have arrived from the UK over the past seven days as well as passengers arriving on Dec 21 and Dec 22

A growing list of European Union nations and Canada barred travel from the United Kingdom on Sunday and others were considering similar action, in a bid to block the new strain of the coronavirus sweeping across southern England from spreading to their countries.

France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and Bulgaria all announced restrictions on UK travel, hours after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that Christmas shopping and gatherings in southern England must be cancelled because of rapidly spreading infections blamed on the new coronavirus variant.

Johnson immediately placed those regions under a strict new Tier 4 restriction level, upending Christmas plans for millions.

France banned all travel from the UK for 48 hours from midnight Sunday, including trucks carrying freight through the tunnel under the English Channel or from the port of Dover on England’s south coast. French officials said the pause would buy time to find a “common doctrine” on how to deal with the threat, but it threw the busy cross-channel route used by thousands of trucks a day into chaos.

The Port of Dover tweeted on Sunday night that its ferry terminal was “closed to all accompanied traffic leaving the UK until further notice due to border restrictions in France.”

Eurostar passenger trains from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam were also halted.

Germany said all flights coming from Britain, except cargo flights, were no longer allowed to land starting midnight Sunday. It didn’t immediately say how long the flight ban would last. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said he was issuing a flight ban for 24 hours starting at midnight “out of precaution”.