KARACHI: Pakistan’s aviation regulator has made masks mandatory on domestic flights given a gradual rise in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country, it said a statement.
The order comes a day after Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, reported that its COVID-19 positivity ratio, or the rate of positive cases out of all tests conducted, rose to 21 percent compared with a national rate of 2.8 percent.
“With immediate effect, mask wearing will be mandatory onboard domestic flights,” the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) said in the statement late on Sunday.
Pakistan has had very few COVID cases over recent months and had done away with almost all precautions.
But over the past 24 hours, the national COVID positivity ratio had risen to 2.85 percent with 382 positive cases and two deaths, according to data released on Monday by the National Institute of Health, Islamabad (NIH).
A month ago, the positivity ratio was 0.54 percent with 79 positive cases and no deaths. According to the NIH, 85 percent of eligible Pakistanis have been fully vaccinated against COVID.
Pakistan disbanded the National Command and Operations Center, which was overseeing the COVID response, on March 31 as infections fell to the lowest since the outbreak began in 2020.
Pakistan orders masks on domestic flights as COVID-19 numbers rise
https://arab.news/rc7ng
Pakistan orders masks on domestic flights as COVID-19 numbers rise
UK supported French operation to board sanctioned Russian tanker, minister says
- Healey said this support included a vessel, HMS Dagger, monitoring the tanker as it passed through the Straits of Gibraltar
- “Deterring, disrupting and degrading the Russian shadow fleet is a priority for this government“
LONDON: Britain provided tracking and monitoring support for a French operation to board a sanctioned Russian oil tanker in a bid to choke off the funds that fuel Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UK defense minister John Healey said on Thursday.
Healey said this support included a vessel, HMS Dagger, monitoring the tanker as it passed through the Straits of Gibraltar. The tanker, named the GRINCH, is subject to UK and European sanctions for facilitating trade in sanctioned oil and forms part of a growing web of the so-called “shadow-fleet.”
“Deterring, disrupting and degrading the Russian shadow fleet is a priority for this government,” Healey said in a statement.
“I can confirm that the UK has provided tracking and monitoring in support of the French operation to board the tanker Grinch.”
He said Britain and its allies were stepping up their response to so-called shadow-fleet vessels, which he described as helping finance Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
President Emmanuel Macron said earlier on Thursday that the French Navy had boarded an oil tanker coming from Russia that was subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag.
He said the operation was conducted on the high seas in the Mediterranean with support from several allies and in strict compliance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
A judicial investigation had been opened and the vessel diverted, the French president said, adding that France was determined to enforce sanctions.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said it routinely tracks suspected Russian shadow-fleet activity and shares information with allies, adding that the country has sanctioned 544 such vessels to date.
