Pakistan registered an uptick in Covid-19 infections and positivity ratio as the country diagnosed another 50 coronavirus cases with no fatality during the last 24 hours (Wednesday), showed the statistics released by the National Institute of Health (NIH) on Thursday morning, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

According to the NIH data, the death toll in the country remained the same at 30,644 whereas the number of total infections now climbed up to 1,577,338 after adding the fresh 50 cases.

https://twitter.com/NIH_Pakistan/status/1633643766522281984

During the last 24 hours (Wednesday), 5,157 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio went up to 0.97%. The number of patients in critical care stood at nine.

Australia drops Covid testing for China arrivals

Australia will drop the requirement for travellers arriving from China to test for Covid-19 before departure from March 11, the country's health minister said in a statement on Thursday.

The measures also apply to travellers from Hong Kong and Macau.

“This is a sensible, measured decision based on decreasing COVID-19 case numbers in China, regular data updates from China on case numbers, and the fact that we have strengthened our capacity to detect and respond to emerging variants of concern within Australia of international origin,” Health Minister Mark Butler said.

Several other countries that implemented similar measures such as the United States, South Korea and Japan have recently either repealed their arrangements or announced an intention to repeal them, he added.