China offers experimental COVID-19 vaccine to aviation sector employees: Report

China has reportedly offered dosage of experimental coronavirus vaccines to aviation industry workers to prevent a possible resurgence of COVID-19 amid reopening of businesses. China has already started an emergency vaccination programme for high-risk groups including border inspectors and frontline medical workers.

Frontline workers at Chinese airlines, airports, China National Aviation Fuel Group and TravelSky Technology Limited will reportedly be immunised using the experimental vaccine on a voluntary basis. According to reports, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has asked the companies to submit a list of employees willing to take the vaccine which is still undergoing human trial.

The decision to inoculate aviation sector employees has reportedly been taken to prevent a possible second wave of coronavirus infections. China has allowed international flights to and from Beijing after nearly six months of gap when most of the countries are witnessing a second wave of the pandemic.

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Flights resumption

International flights from eight countries, including its “all-weather ally” Pakistan, will be allowed from Thursday. Other countries from where flights will be allowed are Thailand and Cambodia in Asia; Greece, Denmark, Austria and Sweden in Europe and Canada in North America, as there has been less number of imported cases from these countries, according to Beijing.

All international flights bound for Beijing were being rerouted to other Chinese cities to prevent imported COVID-19 cases. The first direct international flight to Beijing will be operated by Air China which will depart from Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, on September 3. The inbound travellers will have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine. 

Beijing health department spokesperson Gao Xiaojun told a press conference that the quarantined travellers under medical observations will have to take nucleic acid tests twice. Meanwhile, China’s National Health Commission announced 11 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, adding that all were imported. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 85,066, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.

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(Representational Image: AP)