Covid-19: Pakistan to ban unvaccinated from air travel, public sector, education, malls

Islamabad - Pakistan has seen coronavirus infections soar, dominated by Delta variant.

Pakistan will ban air travel for anyone without a Covid-19 vaccine certificate from August 1 and will require all public sector workers to get vaccinated by August 31, the government announced on Thursday along with a host of other restrictions.

From Aug. 1, unvaccinated people will no longer be allowed to enter government offices, schools, restaurants and shopping malls, said Asad Umar, who heads National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), a military-run body that oversees the pandemic response, at a joint news conference with the health minister in Islamabad.

Teachers and students above 18, public transport and retail staff will also be required to get vaccinated by the end of August, they said.

Pakistan has seen coronavirus infections soar, dominated by Delta variant, and its poor health infrastructure is under extreme pressure.

The national positive test rate for COVID stands at 7.53 per cent, according to the NCOC. The rate in the southern port city of Karachi touched 23 per cent in recent weeks.

"If you're not vaccinated you can't go to teach at schools and colleges from August 1," Umar said.

It said Pakistan registered 4,497 new cases and 76 deaths in the last 24 hours, with over 3,000 people in critical condition. So far 23,209 people have died of COVID-19 in Pakistan