British government on Sunday claimed that the actual number of COVID-19 cases in Pakistan is likely to be much higher than the reported cases in the country.

According to a report in Geo News, citing a letter from UK government, said that Pakistan's testing and sequencing rates are relatively low which means it is not possible to know the full genomic makeup of the country.

This is why Pakistan was not removed from the UK's red list on Thursday, it said.

“The national testing rate varies considerably across regions. For example, in Punjab — Pakistan’s most densely populated region — with the highest number of active cases, testing is below Pakistan’s average rate and is the second-lowest in the country,” Britain’s Health Minister Lord James Nicholas Bethell informed UK's MP and the Chair of All Parties Parliamentary Group on Pakistan, Yasmin Qureshi.

Following these claims, the British government decided to keep Pakistan in its travel 'red list'.

“The limited sequencing data available from Pakistan would suggest that they are currently experiencing a Delta wave, however, given the limitations in the available data, we could not be reassured that the outbreaks are due to known variants such as Delta, or if a novel cluster(s) of new or high-risk variants are developing and/or driving the epidemiology in Pakistan,” Bethell wrote.

The minister explained the decision was based on the recommendations made by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) which produces public health risk assessments.

The health minister also informed that JBC analyses a range of qualitative and quantitative indicators to assess each country.

Earlier several MPs had accused British government of discriminatory policies against Pakistan following the government's decision to move India on 'amber list' while keeping Pakistan on its travel 'red list'.