NUR-SULTAN / ex ASTANA (Xinhua) — Kazakhstan will resume flights with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan starting from Thursday, the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development announced.

The resumption of flights with Tajikistan is also under consideration, while Malaysia, Poland, Hungary, Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic have also submitted applications to resume flights, the ministry added.

Kazakhstan has so far restored regular flights with Turkey, South Korea, the Netherlands, Belarus, Germany, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates.

According to the country’s health ministry, the COVID-19 epidemic situation in the country has stabilized, with the infection rate dropping significantly. Hospital bed occupancy and ambulance calls have decreased by over five times since the second lockdown was imposed. The number of COVID-19 patients who remain in hospitals has reduced to 4,810 as of Wednesday.

Kazakhstan has reported a total of 106,498 COVID-19 cases, with 1,646 deaths and 100,042 recoveries. The country registered 73 new cases in the past 24 hours.