Pakistan resumes flights to and from China
Last updated on: 02 February,2020 11:50 pm
Spokesman for Aviation Division said the first flight would arrive Pakistan from China on Monday.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Pakistan on Sunday resumed direct flights to and from China after being temporarily suspended for a few days on Sunday.
Sources privy to the Aviation Division said that the letter suspending the direct flights to and from China was issues until February 2.
The spokesman for the Aviation Division said that Pakistan had decided to resume the direct flight operation between the two countries. He said the first flight would arrive Pakistan from China on Monday.
On Friday, Pakistan halted flights to and from China with immediate effect, a civil aviation official said, as the death toll from a virus outbreak spreading in China mounted and the World Health Organization called it a global health emergency.
“We are suspending flights to China until Feb 2,” additional secretary of aviation Abdul Sattar Khokhar said, adding the situation would be reviewed after that date. He declined to comment on the reason for the closure.
Some airlines including British Airways, have suspended flights to China due to warnings of the coronavirus outbreak.
Earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza said Pakistan was fully capable of diagnosing coronavirus after China sent approximately 1,000 kits to Pakistan to detect the deadly disease.
According to a National Institute of Health (NIH) official, the testing for the virus will be carried out at the NIH in Islamabad but will later be expanded to other cities depending on the need.
“Samples collected from across the country will be sent to NIH where they will be tested. We already have a mechanism in place for this,” he said.
“A PCR-based (polymerase chain reaction) test which will be used to isolate the genome of the virus,” he elaborated the process of detecting the disease and added that the tests will be conducted free-of-charge.