Jinnah International Airport in Karachi is again applying mandatory vaccination to Umrah pilgrims and other people leaving Pakistan on international flights. A temporary exemption from those checks ended on 10 October, ProPakistani reported, and the airport has started applying the requirement as a condition of departure.
The doses are being given at the International Traveller Vaccination Centre, which Border Health Services operates near Star Gate. The centre is open around the clock. Border Health Services handles health formalities for people crossing the border. Staff there give polio, meningitis and other vaccines, choosing what each passenger needs from the destination and the rest of the itinerary.
The centre does not apply one vaccine list to every passenger. Staff match polio, meningitis and other applicable vaccines to each destination and itinerary.
What Umrah pilgrims and other passengers need
People travelling for Umrah must take both the polio and the meningitis vaccines. Passengers whose destination countries ask for yellow fever protection must receive that vaccine as well. The list is not identical for every passport holder: it follows the route on the ticket, including countries that only appear as a connection.
Border Health Services has told holders of Pakistani passports to complete vaccination requirements for their destinations and for their transit points before they depart. That direction covers transit stops as well as the final destination.
How much the vaccines cost
ProPakistani reported the prices at the centre. The meningitis vaccine costs Rs2,785. The influenza vaccine costs Rs1,720. The polio dose is given free of charge. The report gives a price for influenza as well, at Rs1,720, without describing it as part of the Umrah pair of polio and meningitis.
Dr Ghulam Murtaza Shah, Border Health's focal person, told Express News that vaccine supplies and certificates had been put in place to help people flying abroad. ProPakistani carried that account of the preparations at the centre used by passengers leaving through Karachi.
The same mandatory vaccination applies beyond the pilgrimage. Other international travellers are being vaccinated according to their own destinations and itineraries, with polio remaining the free dose and meningitis and influenza carrying the prices above.
Certificates before departure
Travellers have been asked to check their vaccination certificates so the papers do not cause problems during international travel. With the exemption over, passengers using Jinnah International Airport are expected to meet the mandatory vaccination rules before they fly.
Holders of Pakistani passports have been directed to settle destination and transit requirements before departure. Vaccination services at the Star Gate centre are available around the clock for those who still need a dose or a certificate.
