We prove that the PPT$^2$ conjecture holds for linear maps between matrix algebras which are covariant under the action of the diagonal unitary group. Many salient examples, like the Choi-type maps, depolarizing maps, dephasing maps, amplitude damping maps, and mixtures thereof, lie in this class. Our proof relies on a generalization of the matrix-theoretic notion of factor width for pairwise completely positive matrices, and a complete characterization in the case of factor width two.