WHILE the concerns of Pakistani authorities about the transmission of Covid-19 infection are legitimate, the requirement to present a negative PCR test before travelling from Bahrain to Pakistan is causing inconvenience to the passengers.

For this, they have to pay an equivalent of over Rs10,000 in Bahrain and go through hassle. Such a requirement for passengers from Bahrain may be removed in the light of certain factors.

The coronavirus situation in Bahrain is very well controlled and supported by a highly organised contact tracing system, case management, isolation and quarantine. There are only a few travel-related cases. The country has started administrating vaccines to its residents faster and much earlier than other countries in the region. Pakistan has exempted 23 countries from mandatory pre-flight Covid-19 PCR test that have almost similar or even higher pattern of Covid-19 infection than Bahrain. The requirement of a PCR test ignores the fact that people can be infected even after giving the test sample in the hospital or even during their journey. A negative test result does not guarantee that travellers will not get infected on their way to Pakistan.

Bahrain has a lower daily number of new cases than Pakistan; therefore, even if an infected person sneaks into Pakistan, which is less likely, he/she may not be able to transmit the infection considering that he/she would be asymptomatic and must have been screened for temperature and other symptoms at airports.

Lastly, if there is a fear of a new variant of SARS CoV-2 getting imported in Pakistan, there is no evidence of this strain in Bahrain; the new variant is already in Pakistan and that the current vaccines work even against it. I would appreciate if the Pakistani government exempted the passengers from Bahrain from showing a negative test result like other countries. If it is too much to ask for, it must consider removing this requirement for the travellers who have completed two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in Bahrain.

Dr Jamil Ahmed
Bahrain

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2021