RAWALPINDI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has made an amendment to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for international passengers travelling to Pakistan.

The CAA said that following instructions from the National Institute of Health under the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, the authority issued a list of tests which may be considered as equivalent to PCR-based tests for Covid-19. These are: Real Time-PCR for Covid-19, RT-PCR for SARS-Cov-2, RT-PCR for Covid-19, RT-PCR for SARS-Cov-2, PCR for Covid-19, PCR for SARS-Cov-2 and Xpert Xpress SARS-Cov-2 or SARS-Cov-2Gene Xpert.

The CAA said the passengers holding negative certificates/reports for any of the above tests would be considered as fulfilling the requirement of mandatory RT-PCR testing as mentioned in the SOPs related to international passengers, chartered and private aircraft flights to Pakistan issued on Sept 29, and subsequent amendments issued thereafter.

All airlines/aircraft operators, ground handling agents, authorised flights and agents are to ensure full compliance and inform passengers wishing to travel to Pakistan. The CAA has directed the authorities concerned to implement the SOPs.

An updated list of countries for categories A and B has been approved by the competent authority for international passengers, chartered and private flight operations between Nov 6 and Dec 31.

Category-A: International travellers from 22 countries do not require Covid-19 RT-PCR/PCR test before entry into Pakistan. They are: Australia, China, Cuba, Estonia, Ghana, Japan, Kazakhs­tan, Malawi, New Zealand, Norway, Rwanda, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Uruguay, Vietnam and Zambia.

Category-B: International travellers from countries not specified in category-A required Covid-19 RT-PCR/PCR test before commencement of travel to Pakistan (maximum 96 hours old). All countries not specified in category-A fall in category-B.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2020