Covid-19: No proof of Indian strain reaching Pakistan.

According to Pakistan's top health authorities, there is no proof that the triple mutant covid-19 strain from India or the B.1.617.2 variant has made it to the region.

They claim that safety initiatives such as decreased inbound travel, airport testing, and quarantine for anyone who tests positive for covid-19 have been implemented.

They claim that safety initiatives such as decreased inbound travel, airport testing, and quarantine for anyone who tests positive have been implemented. 'We have reduced inbound air traffic by 80% and we are asking all passengers to get tested before boarding while they are also being tested on arrival. We are keeping those testing positive in quarantine to ensure the variant dubbed as triple mutant or Indian variant does not manage to get into Pakistan,' Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan told The News.

Several health experts are advising the government to prohibit all direct or indirect flights from the United Kingdom and Gulf states to Pakistan in order to avoid the transmission of B.1.617.2 or the Indian version, which has now been designated a 'variant of concern' and a global health danger by the World Health Organization (WHO).

'We don't have documentation. Yet, to exclude anything in a country of 220 million is impossible,' Dr. Sultan said when questioned on how sure he is if the Indian variant has not entered Pakistan.

Dr. Sultan said Pakistan had approached Thailand's health authorities via the International Health Regulations (IHR) process to request information on a family they believed had contracted the Indian version from Pakistan, but that the Thai authorities had so far refused to offer any information.

Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, Pakistan's Director-General of Health, said the Indian version had not yet reached Pakistan but cautioned that it was...