THE report of Etihad Airways becoming the third major Gulf airline to ‘temporarily suspend’ its flight operations from Pakistan till July 1 as 30 Pakistanis arriving in Hong Kong earlier this week were found to be infected by the novel coronavirus is quite disconcerting. Some of the passengers who tested positive for the Covid-19 infection were asymptomatic, and all but three of them had to be admitted to hospital. All the passengers had travelled by Emirates, which was quick to stop its outbound flights from Pakistan till July 3, only two weeks after the resumption of its limited operations in the country. Earlier, Fly Dubai, a budget airline, had also suspended its operations until Aug 1 because of the fast spread of the infection. Nevertheless, Emirates and Etihad are continuing their inbound passenger and cargo operations in addition to special outbound flights taking back UAE nationals. The resumption of their services from this country depends on the implementation of the “required additional measures to satisfy all parties”.

In another case, one of the three infected passengers arriving in New Zealand days after that country had reopened for business after declaring victory over the Covid-19 plague had travelled from Lahore. These reports would have reminded many people of a recommendation issued by the World Health Organisation in 2014 that all Pakistanis travelling outside their country should be administered the polio vaccination. This was not surprising when we consider that several polio cases had erupted in the country and that the virus here was also believed to have spread to countries like Egypt. With the number of coronavirus infections going up and set to cross 200,000 cases, and with the death toll reaching 4,000, many questions have been raised regarding the government’s decision to relax monitoring of both outbound and inbound travellers. Recently, South Korea has also temporarily banned most people from Pakistan and Bangladesh from entering the country after it recorded increases in coronavirus cases from those two states. It has also halted non-scheduled flights between South Korea and the two countries, though diplomats and those travelling for urgent business purposes are exempted from the entry suspension. If effective measures are not implemented immediately to stop infected Pakistanis from boarding outbound flights, chances are that the foreign airlines would extend the suspension of their services from Pakistan; in fact, a number of countries could put stricter restrictions on us to protect themselves.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2020