In a major development, the United Kingdom (UK) has removed Pakistan from its list of “red list countries,” British High Commissioner Christian Turner announced.
“Pleased to confirm Pakistan is off the red list. I know how difficult the last 5 months were for so many who rely on close links between Pakistan & UK,” he wrote on his official Twitter handle on Friday.He also thanked Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umer, Prime Minister's aide on health Dr Faisal Sultan, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) and other relevant departments for their close “for their close collaboration”.
In a follow-up tweet, Turner said the UK will continue to work closely with Pakistan to ensure data sharing and safeguard public health in both countries. “No one is safe until everyone is safe.”
Welcoming the decision, NCOC head Asad Umar said, “Good to know finally the right decision taken to take Pakistan off red list. UK high commission in Pak has been supportive throughout.”
He also appreciated UK parliamentarians’ “for conveying facts about the Covid-19 situation in Pakistan”.“Ambassador your efforts are commendable..... good news after dThe British government had placed Pakistan and India on the red list on April 2 and 19, respectively. However, in an updated list last month, the UK authorities had removed India, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE from the list but retained Islamabad.
The UK government had maintained that the decision to keep Pakistan on the red list, under the coronavirus travel restrictions, was based on data and science.
The decision was met with backlash from the Pakistani public and politicians alike who termed it unjust. Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari criticised the British government, calling the measure 'ridiculous'.
Last month, Dr Faisal had also written a letter to the UK’s Secretary of State for Health Sajid Javid to provide data that compared “key indicators from Pakistan and some other countries in the region which currently sit in the ‘Amber List’ in efforts to highlight some obvious disparities”.
The table showed that Pakistan had the lowest daily cases, daily deaths, and total deaths per million people in the region. It further indicated that Pakistan had higher daily vaccination per 100 people, within the region.
Pakistan’s data was compared to that of India, Iran and Iraq, all of whom are on the 'Amber List' and have statistically fared worse, according to Dr Sultan.
With regards to the UK’s concern about Pakistan’s testing rates, he said that “the number of tests being done are a large enough sample size to be a sensitive and accurate barometer of the epidemic”.
According to Dr Sultan, the number of tests has “accurately reflected the rise and fall of all the waves seen so far”.
The SAPM on health also listed the various metrics that enhance testing rates and have “risen and fallen in a coherent fashion and with latencies and intervals which fit perfectly well with how the disease progresses clinically”.
He further mentioned that all data and statistics regarding Covid in Pakistan are uploaded daily at the NCOC website.
Other officials including Senator Faisal Javed and Shireen Mazari also echoed similar sentiments.
“Pak was dealt with unfairly so it was time for UK govt to put things right!,” wrote Mazari in a tweet.epressing day for cricket,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said.
