Pakistan, on Monday, said it was resuming flights to and from China, three days after it suspended them because of the coronavirus outbreak in China.

The decision runs counter to many other airlines and governments that have tightened travel restrictions and suspended more flights in response to the fast-spreading virus, which is thought to have originated in China’s Hubei province.

“We are resuming flight operations with China,’’ said Additional Secretary of Aviation, Abdul Sattar Khokhar.

Khokhar added that a China Southern Airlines flight, carrying 145 passengers, would arrive in Islamabad later.

Chinese and Pakistani authorities said they were screening passengers and 12 Chinese citizens, who had flown into Pakistan, would be traced and registered by the Chinese embassy.

“They are carefully scrutinised and monitored here,’’ China’s ambassador to Pakistan, Yao Jing, told a news conference with Pakistan’s Health Minister, Zafar Mirza.

China said on Saturday its Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, had raised travel restrictions in a telephone call with Pakistan’s foreign minister.

Air France, British Airways, United Airlines, Lion Air, Finnair, Cathay Pacific, Urals Airlines, among others had either suspended or halted flights to and from China as a result of the coronavirus epidemic.

(Reuters/NAN)