KARACHI: Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Tuesday issued operational standard operating procedures (SOPs) for international inbound passenger flight.

As per the guidelines, the health officers have been directed to carry out Rapid Antigen Testing of all passengers on arrival at airports in Pakistan.

Negative cases will undergo 10 days self quarantine at home with stringent Trace, Test & Quarantine (TTQ) protocols while positive cases will be shifted by Provincial / District Administration to self paid facility for 10 days quarantine with TTQ of contacts (if any).

2nd RT PCR test will be conducted on eighth day of quarantine period.

In case of negative result, passenger will be allowed to proceed home. However, in case of positive result, passenger will either undergo additional quarantine period or will be shifted to hospital as per advice of health authorities.

The development came after Pakistan reported 161 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 837,523. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 18,310.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) 3,377 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

Punjab remains the worst-hit province in terms of deaths and cases followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Till now 8,683 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 4,678 in Sindh, 3,423 in KP, 693 in Islamabad, 487 in Azad Kashmir, 239 in Balochistan, and 107 in GB.

Furthermore, 308,529 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Punjab, 286,521 in Sindh, 120,590 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 76,492 in Islamabad, 22,664 in Balochistan, 17,397 in Azad Kashmir and 5,330 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Pakistan has so far conducted 11,965,682 coronavirus tests and 37,587 in the last 24 hours. 733,062 patients have recovered in the country whereas 5,326 patients are in critical condition.