KARACHI: Pakistan Civil aviation authority (PCAA) has made masks mandatory on domestic flights given a gradual rise in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country, it said in a statement on Monday, while, the apex national coordination body has recommended making it mandatory for people to start wearing masks in public places again.

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%.

“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.

Meanwhile, in a message posted on their official Twitter account, the National Institute of Health (NIH) stated that the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) has recommended making mask-wearing in public spaces mandatory.

After a slight change in Covid-19 cases in some cities, the NCOC has recommended mask-wearing on all domestic flights, railways, and public transport within the country is mandatory. So all citizens are requested to wear a face mask during travel. ????

— NIH Pakistan (@NIH_Pakistan) June 27, 2022

Also read: Pakistan reports over 380 Covid cases

NCOC has recommended mask-wearing in railways and public transport, and on all domestic flights.” the message read.

The advisory came as the positivity ratio in several cities, including Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad started to rise since last week.

At least seven people have died of the virus so far in the past week, including two in the past 24 hours.

In the past 24 hours, at least 7,637 tests for Covid-19 have been conducted across the country, According to data released by the NIH.

Of this, 349 tests confirmed the presence of the virus in people, putting the national positivity ratio at 4.57%.

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.