Saudi Arabia Eases Visa Restrictions For Pakistani Pilgrims

ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia has lifted travel restrictions for Pakistani Umrah pilgrims by amending the Covid-19 criteria. Pakistan also reached another milestone in the fight against coronavirus by vaccinating over two million people in a day.

Recently, the national positive rate dropped to 5.34 percent and less than 3,000 cases were recorded in a single day. These results corresponded with the vaccinization trend.

Pakistani pilgrims seeking to do Umrah would be asked to present simply a negative PCR test report that is only 48 hours old at the time of departure, according to the new requirements.

Regardless of whether a person has had vaccinations or other forms of protection, the new rules will take effect on February 16th, according to a report by Radio Pakistan in Karachi.

Seven vaccines — Sinopharm, Sinovac, PakVac, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Sputnik — are being given to individuals across the nation, according to a document from the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). There were 153,615,747 (153.6 million) of the 228,567,704 (228.5 million) persons, i.e. 68% population, who were eligible for vaccination, according to the study.

2,017,179 doses were provided during the last 24 hours, according to NCOC data. A total of 187,996,736 (187.9 million) doses have been given out. Most individuals have got one dosage of the vaccine, but only 87,052,879 (87m) have been completely vaccinated. In addition, 3,114,587 (3.1 million) people have received booster injections as well.

Dr Faisal Sultan, Pakistan’s Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, tweeted: “Highest daily vaccination doses provided yesterday in Pakistan. Congratulations!”

However, data from the NCOC shows that 37 people died and 2,799 fresh cases were discovered in the previous 24 hours, with more suspected. The number of patients in serious condition on Tuesday was as high as 1,668.

In large cities like Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, the percentage of positive cases decreased below 10%, but in seven cities in the northern half of the nation, the percentage was above 10%.

Karachi, which had a positivity rating of nearly 40% just a few weeks ago, now has a positivity rate of 7.65 percent, Islamabad’s is 8.53 percent, Lahore’s is 4.19 percent, Rawalpindi’s is 2.36 percent, and Faisalabad’s is 2.2 percent.

Peshawar had the highest positivity rate, with 22.39 percent of samples. Gilgit recorded 19.63pc, Mardan 19.24pc, Nowshera 15.48pc, Hyderabad 15.08pc, Abbottabad 12.44pc, and Mirpur reported 10.61pc of positive COVID-19 infections.

A total of 29,553 people have died as a result of the deadly virus since the start of pandemic. 38 percent of those patients were beyond the age of 81, followed by 21 percent of those aged 71 to 81.