A passenger who tested positive for Covid-19 at Karachi airport a day before on Thursday ran away from the federal government-run quarantine facility.
According to sources, the passenger arrived at Karachi airport from Dubai via a foreign airline’s flight. He was shifted to a federal government-run Covid-isolation facility along with other passengers who tested positive for the deadly infection during rapid testing at the Karachi airport.
On May 04, the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan rolled out new conditions for all the passengers traveling to Karachi that they take mandatory rapid Covid test before exiting Jinnah International Airport.
It is imposed that before exiting the airport they must determine their Covid status and upon testing positive they quarantine themselves at their own expense in a nearby airport hotel. The passengers will only be allowed to step into the city once they test negative of the novel coronavirus.
The strict measures were introduced after the National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) on May 01 devised new protocols for the inbound passengers, imposing a condition of Covid testing at Pakistan airports.
The NCOC in its handout issued said that in view of prevailing global and regional disease trends, Pakistan has decided to reduce inbound international travel from 5 May to 20th May by 20 percent. The fresh protocols released on NCOC’s Twitter handle for the inbound passengers stated that people having Pakistani passports could return to the country and had to carry a negative PCR test report performed 72 hours before travel.
Besides this, the passengers will undergo rapid Covid testing at the Pakistani airports and would stay in quarantine for 10 days at their homes. In case of testing positive, the passengers will have to shift to a quarantine facility, where they would be re-tested for Covid-19 on the eight-day. The guidelines stated that the passenger would bear the expense of the isolation facility and in case of testing positive for the second time, the passenger would be shifted to a hospital.
