KARACHI        -             As many as 96 passengers were offloaded from the Doha-bound flights on Monday at the Karachi and Islamabad airports as precautionary measure against the rapidly spreading coronavirus disease.

As per details, 48 passengers were barred from flying to Doha, Qatar at the Karachi International airport, while 48 others were offloaded from the Doha-bound flight from Islamabad airport. The offloaded passengers were traveling to Doha on a visit visas. Meanwhile, the bookings of the passengers flying to Doha on the visit visas have been cancelled at all the airports of Pakistan.

It may be noted that the Qatari government has announced temporary ban on travelers from Pakistan, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria and Thailand. It is to be mentioned here that Qatar Airways had already suspended flights to and from Italy, which has reported 366 deaths in the outbreak. Qatar reported three more cases of the virus on Sunday, bringing the total there to 15.