Coronavirus: KP govt begins tracking people who arrived in Pakistan from UK

• KP authorities start tracing 101 passengers
• Authorities say new virus variant "very dangerous"
• People to be tested after tracing

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has started tracking passengers who have arrived in the province from the United Kingdom after a new coronavirus strain was discovered in England.

According to a report by the provincial health department, authorities have sent letters to deputy commissioners that include the names of at least 101 people.

The passengers arrived from the United Kingdom and went to 12 districts of the province which include Mardan, Abbottabad, and Swat. "We will test these people after tracing them," the health department officials said.

Read more: Britain slapped with coronavirus travel bans due to new strain of virus

Those who test positive for the virus will be placed under quarantine, said an official of the health department, adding that the new coronavirus strain in the UK was very dangerous. 

"The virus has the capability to spread rapidly from an infected person," the official added. 

Pakistan updates travel restrictions 

Pakistan announced its updated standard operating procedures (SOPs) for travel restrictions imposed on inbound travelers from the United Kingdom, after cases of a highly new infectious strain of the coronavirus rose across the European country.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced Tuesday that Pakistani passport holders who have been issued the Business, Visitor or Transit visas by British authorities can return to the country provided they show a negative PCR test.

The test, however, must have been taken 72 hours prior to the start of their travel to Pakistan, said the aviation authority.

Read more: Turkish scientist confident Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine effective against new UK strain

The government has also allowed Pakistanis that hold study, family, work and settlement visas in the UK to return to Pakistan "if their visas are expiring within the next 30 days from the issuance of this letter while holding negative PCR Test Reports conducted within the 72 hours prior to commencement of travel to Pakistan".

The new variant

Countries across the globe shut their borders to Britain on Monday due to fears about a new strain of coronavirus, said to be up to 70% more transmissible than the original, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of food shortages days before Britain is set to leave the European Union.

Read more: Pakistan records lowest coronavirus positivity rate since Nov 7

The discovery of the new strain, just months before vaccines are expected to be widely available, renewed fears about the virus, which killed about 1.7 million people worldwide.

The note of calm from the CEO about the UK mutation echoed the World Health Organization (WHO), which cautioned against major alarm, saying this was a normal part of a pandemic’s evolution.