Pakistan puts travel restrictions on people from 26 countries including India

Islamabad: Pakistan has placed strict restrictions on travellers from 26 countries including India to contain the spread of COVID-19 cases in the country.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a nerve centre to synergize effort against COVID-19 has placed these countries in the "C category" and revised the inbound air/land travel categories with an immediate effect, Dawn reported.

"Countries in A category are exempted from the mandatory Covid-19 test, travellers from areas in B category require a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that must be taken within 72 hours of the travel date while countries in C category are restricted and people can travel only under specific NCOC guidelines," an official of the country's Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) said.

The list of 26 countries includes India, Iran, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, Iraq, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Tunisia, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Namibia, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago as well as Uruguay in the C category list.

Apart from the nations in "C category", the rest have been included in the "B category" and passengers from these countries will be required to present a negative PCR test result.

This comes as Pakistan reported 1,194 new cases and 57 fatalities in the last 24 hours.