China suspended dozens of international flights this Friday due to a global increase in Omicron cases, while the city of Shanghai curbed tourist activity in an attempt to avoid local infections of Covid-19 as infections from people arriving from abroad increased.
China’s cities are becoming more vigilant against Covid-19 ahead of the summer travel season. lunar new year later this month and as Beijing prepares to host the Winter Olympic Games from February 4, and many local governments are urging residents not to leave their cities unnecessarily.
Shanghai’s tourism and culture authority said travel agencies and online tour companies must once again stop organizing group tours, after five new internally transmitted infections were reported on Thursday, all linked to one arrival. from abroad.
The order, in line with a national guideline to cut tourism activities in provinces where new infections have emerged, came less than a month after Shanghai lifted a suspension that had gone into effect in November.
China has sharply reduced international arrivals during the pandemic, but the number of infected travelers arriving in Shanghai, a major financial hub, during the first 10 days of January exceeded the figure for all of December.
China has reported local transmissions of the highly contagious omicron variant in the northern city of Tianjin and three other cities, but has not said how many cases of the mutation it has detected in total.
However, authorities warned that omicron increases the risk of Covid-19 transmission because more people will return to China from abroad for the Lunar New Year holidays.
China announced on Friday that 30 incoming international flights from various countries were suspended due to Covid-19 cases, including four more from the United States. So far this year, China has announced the cancellation of 74 flights from the United States.
Athletes and other personnel involved in the Olympic Games arrive largely on special charter flights and immediately enter a “closed circle” that separates them from the general population.
Although China’s case numbers remain small compared to outbreaks elsewhere, the country is aiming to eliminate risks as quickly as possible, an approach that has forced governments to rapidly isolate those infected and their close contacts. .
This week, hundreds of thousands of people were quarantined in centralized facilities or at home in China’s hardest-hit cities.