COVID-19 vaccination certificate mandatory for domestic air travel: NCOC

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday declared COVID-19 vaccination certificates mandatory for domestic air travel.

The country's apex COVID-19 body urged the public to get vaccinated by July 31 in order to circumvent any inconvenience.

According to NCOC, from August 1, travellers will be required to carry proof of vaccination when taking domestic flights.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued a notification in this regard, saying that it has communicated these guidelines to all airlines.

"From August 1, those people seeking to board domestic flights who are not vaccinated will not be allowed to travel," the notification said.

It stated that this restriction applies to all individuals aged 18 and above.

The development comes as a slight drop was recorded in the daily cases and death counts Saturday morning.

Pakistan's coronavirus positivity ratio has fallen and now stands at 4.89%.

According to the latest data from the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on its official web portal, at least 32 more people succumbed to the coronavirus on Friday, taking the total death tally to 22,971.

In the last 24 hours, 37,636 coronavirus tests were conducted across the country, out of which 1,841 came back positive.

In addition to this, 924,782 people have recovered from the virus in the country so far, whereas the number of active cases stands at 54,122 as of today morning.

However, a dip in numbers are not meant to be seen as a sign that the threat from the virus is diminishing. It must be remembered that just a day earlier, Pakistan became the 30th country to cross the grim milestone of 1 million cases.

NCOC chief Asad Umar in a post on Twitter today, urged people to follow coronavirus-related standard operating procedures (SOPs) and get themselves vaccinated against the virus, warning the “risk is not over”.