UK government retains Pakistan in red list amid 'deteriorating COVID-19 situation'

The United Kingdom government has retained Pakistan on the red list of its travel advisory. The British government has taken the decision due to the "deteriorating COVID situation" in the country, according to news agency ANI. United Kingdom senior health official JO Churchill, has in a letter explained the reasons for keeping Pakistan on the red list of countries. 

UK retains Pakistan in red list

In a letter dated August 6, JO Churchill has mentioned that UK's Biosecurity Centre continues to assess risk, news agency ANI cited The Express Tribune report. She has revealed that United Kingdom Biosecurity Centre has been assessing trends in deaths, hospitalisations, exported cases, testing and test positivity rates. Churchill in the letter mentioned that in Pakistan, "the combination of a deteriorating epidemiological situation, combined with low testing rates and limited genomic surveillance, presents a high risk that an outbreak of a new variant, or existing VoC [variant of concern], will not be identified before it is imported to the UK."

Furthermore, she raised concern over the current trajectory of COVID-19 cases in Pakistan. She has revealed in the letter that in the past seven days, the COVID-19 cases in Pakistan have increased by 87% in the previous week. She further added that the deaths due to novel virus also rose by 75% during the same period. In the letter, the UK health official informed that the "test positivity is high and rising, growing from 5.6% on July 26 to 7.9% on August 3." The response of UK senior health officials comes after Pakistan was retained in the red list of countries.

It is worth mentioning that the British government has removed India from the red list of countries. Earlier on April 2, the UK government had placed Pakistan and India on the red list. The British government, however, in an updated list had announced that India, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates would be moved to the amber list from August 8. According to the UK government travel advisory rules, the red list countries means that only the UK nationals and those with residency rights will be allowed to travel to the country if they stayed in Pakistan for ten days before they arrive. 

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Inputs from ANI