Staff Reporter Karachi
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Friday said that health authorities do not have the resources to conduct rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in Pakistan and only rapid antigen testing is being used as a method of testing passengers for Covid-19 at the airports.
In a letter written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the authority stated that the rapid PCR test facility cannot be provided to departing passengers for Dubai as it is currently unavailable in Pakistan.
It urged the MoFA official to take up the matter with relevant authorities in the UAE on priority basis to reconsider their policy.
On Tuesday, the UAE’s National Emergency and Crisis Management Authority (NCEMA) said that it will lift a ban on transit passenger traffic from Paki-stan and other countries from August 5.
NCEMA said on Twitter that passengers travelling from countries where flights had been suspended would be able to transit through its airports from Thursday as long as they present negative PCR tests taken 72 hours prior to departure.
Final destination approval would also have to be provided, the authority said, adding that UAE depar-ture airports would arrange separate lounges for transiting passengers.
