ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on National Security Dr. Moeed Yusuf has said that 15,000 stranded Pakistanis have so far been repatriated from 38 Countries as the government aims at to bring back all the stranded nationals from abroad at the earliest in a safe manner.
While addressing a News Conference along with the Special Assistant on National Health Services Dr. Zafar Mirza, he said that it has been decided to operate 30 flights in the next 10 days and the focus of these flights will be United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Qatar as 90 percent of 100,000 stranded Pakistanis are in these Gulf Countries.
Dr. Moeed Yusuf said that the flights will be operated in other regions including Africa as well to facilitate the return of stranded Pakistanis.
The Special Assistant said that the flights are being operated keeping in view our capacity of testing and quarantine. He said that the process of bringing back Pakistanis will be further accelerated in the days ahead with improvement in testing and quarantine capacity.
In his remarks, Dr. Zafar Mirza once again appealed the people to follow precautionary measures and the SOPs to avoid the spread of the COVID-19.
The Special Assistant on National Health Services said that the testing capacity is being enhanced. He said that 194,000 tests have so far been carried out, and of these, 9,164 were carried out during the last 24 hours which are the highest in a single day.
Dr. Zafar Mirza expressed the commitment to further enhance the testing capacity in the days ahead.
The Special Assistant said that Coronavirus cases have witnessed an increase in the Country but these are still less than the projections.
Separately in a tweet, the Special Assistant on National Security Dr. Moeed Yusuf said that 227 Pakistanis stranded in India have been repatriated despite the lockdown.
Dr. Moeed Yusuf further said that preparations are being made to have them cross over from Wagah border this week. He said that 46 Pakistanis were brought back earlier.
#CoronaUpdate | Thanks to tireless govt efforts, especially Foreign Office, we are able to bring back 227 Pakistanis stranded in India despite the lockdown there. Preparations being made to have them cross over from Wagah this week. 46 Pakistanis were brought back earlier.
— Moeed W. Yusuf (@YusufMoeed) May 2, 2020
