Alarmed by new Covid variant
\nTravel has been restricted from South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia and Hong Kong
\n Islamabad
\nPakistan placed a complete ban on Saturday on travel from seven countries in the wake of the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus, Omicron, first detected in South Africa, according to a notification issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
\nThe notification said travel had been restricted from six southern African countries, namely South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia, as well as Hong Kong.
\nThese countries, the NCOC added, had been placed in category C \u2014 which includes nations from where people can travel to Pakistan only under specific NCOC guidelines \u2014 consequent to the emergence of the Omicron strain in South Africa and its spread to adjoining regions.
\nHence, \u201ca complete ban has been placed on direct [and] indirect inbound travel from these countries with immediate effect.\u201d
\nEarlier, Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar announced the same in a tweet.
\n\u201cBased on the emergence of the new covid variant, notification has been issued [to] restrict travel from 6 South African countries and Hong Kong,\u201d he said, adding that the \u201cemergence of new variant makes it even more urgent to vaccinate all eligible citizens 12 years and older\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alarmed by new Covid variant Travel has been restricted from South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia and Hong Kong Islamabad Pakistan placed a complete ban on Saturday on travel from seven countries in the wake of the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus, Omicron, first detected in South Africa, according to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[337,388,951,20,950,952],"class_list":{"0":"post-229691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-ban","9":"tag-covid","10":"tag-new","11":"tag-pakistan","12":"tag-travel","13":"tag-variant"},"yoast_head":"\n