China to allow international flights to and from Beijing after nearly 6 months

Beijing has started opening up international travel after a gap of nearly six months following travel restrictions imposed to contain the spread of novel coronavirus which was first reported from Wuhan in December last year. The Chinese capital banned international flights on March 23 and announced its resumption from September 3, indicating that the contagious disease is under control.

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. 

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Mandatory collective 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.

The Chinese government is reportedly resorting to unproven medicine to curb the spread of deadly coronavirus in the Xinjiang region. According to Associated Press, a Uighur woman, who was arrested at the height of COVID-19 outbreak in China, claimed that she was forced to drink a medicine which made her feel weak and nauseous, while the guards watched her gulp it. She even said that the prison officers stripped her and others naked and hosed them with disinfectants like firemen’.

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(With PTI inputs)