Beijing’s airports cancelled hundreds of flights on Friday as travel rules were tightened across China to tackle virus clusters as the capital gears up to host the Winter Olympics.
The world’s most populous nation has reduced infection numbers to a trickle since its initial epidemic last spring thanks to a zero-tolerance approach of border closures, targeted lockdowns and long quarantine periods.
But China is now grappling with flare-ups in a dozen regions linked to tourists, spurring officials to order millions to stay home, restrict inter-provincial travel and ramp up testing.
Case numbers remain far lower than in most countries, with 48 new domestic infections on Friday bringing the tally to less than 250 in the past week. But authorities are not taking any chances, with tens of thousands of people in Beijing — which will host the Winter Olympics in February — under lockdown after a handful of cases were detected.
On Thursday rail authorities ordered two Beijing-bound high-speed trains to stop and sent over 450 passengers to be tested after staff members were identified as close contacts of infected people.
Fearful of outbreaks elsewhere, a number of other cities have also strengthened Covid rules. Authorities in Harbin — the capital of the northeastern Heilongjiang province — warned 10 million residents against outbound travel and grounded a third of flights at the city’s airport.
About six million people are under lockdown across China including around four million in the northwestern city of Lanzhou and the Inner Mongolian county of Ejin, where around 35,000 people live. Booster vaccine shots have been made mandatory for Beijing key workers, state broadcaster CCTV said Friday.
Source: Reuters
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