US lowers Covid travel warnings for Pakistan

CDC advises against travel to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Iceland amid rising virus cases

WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD:

The United States national public health agency on Tuesday lowered its Covid-19 travel advisory for Pakistan in the wake of improved situation of the coronavirus in the country, as almost all indicators of the pandemic prevalence showed a declining trend this month.

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lowered its Covid-19 travel advisory to “Level One: Low” for Pakistan, India, Japan, Liberia, Gambia and Mozambique. Last month Pakistan was placed in “Level Two”.

However, the CDC advised against travel to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Iceland because of a rising number of Covid-19 cases in those countries. The CDC raised its travel recommendation to “Level Four: Very High” for the three countries, telling Americans they should avoid travel there.

Also read: City-wise Covid restrictions as per vaccination rate: NCOC

Recently, Pakistan has seen a declining trend in the Covid data. Last week, the country witnessed less than 1% national positivity ratio, the lowest in more than one-and-a-half years. On Tuesday, the ratio remained 0.64%, according to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

The NCOC, which serves as the nerve centre of the government’s unified effort against the pandemic, said in its daily update that the national tally of active Covid cases came down to 22,626, as 216 more people tested positive for the virus, while 375 people recovered during the last 24 hours.

It said that 6 patients died during the last 24 hours. There were 1,101 Covid-19 infected patients under treatment in critical condition, including 116 on ventilators. As of Tuesday, the national caseload of the disease rose to 1,228,848, while the nationwide death toll reached 28,618 fatalities.