Coronavirus: Pakistan bans passengers from India for two weeks

Following a rise in coronavirus cases in India, the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) on Monday decided to ban passengers coming to Pakistan from the country. 

In a statement, the NCOC said the decision was taken during a meeting with the Federal Minister for Planning and Development and NCOC head Asad Umar in the chair.

The restriction has been imposed on travellers coming from India both via road and air, the NCOC said, adding that the nuclear neighbour has been placed on Category C for two weeks — a category for countries whose passengers cannot travel to Pakistan.

"The meeting was briefed on the coronavirus variant [....] the new variant is the reason behind the spread of coronavirus in India," the statement said.

The NCOC will convene a meeting on April 21 to review the countries placed on Category C, the statement added.

India's capital will impose a week-long lockdown from Monday night as the megacity struggles to contain a huge surge in cases with hospitals running out of beds and oxygen supplies low.

Today, the nation of 1.3 billion people reported a record-high of 273,810 infections — the fifth-consecutive day of more than 200,000 cases — to take the total to 15.06 million.