Pakistan orders masks on domestic flights as COVID numbers rise

People are reflected in a glass entrance of a shop for medical and fitness supplies displaying a precautionary sign for customers as the rise in COVID-19 cases continues in Karachi, Pakistan June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

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% compared with a national rate of 2.8%.

FILE PHOTO: A man wears protective mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while he walks along a road in Karachi, Pakistan January 12, 2021. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

"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% 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% with 79 positive cases and no deaths. According to the NIH, 85% 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.

(Reporting by Syed Raza Hassan; Editing by Robert Birsel)