The first commercial airline flights in one month took off Saturday from Xi’an in western China as the government eased travel curbs imposed after a coronavirus outbreak ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Seven planes took off, according to the website of Xi’an Xianyang International Airport. It said four were due to arrive Sunday.
Access to Xi’an, a city of 13 million people about 1,000 kilometers southwest of Beijing, was suspended Dec. 22 following an outbreak attributed to the coronavirus’s delta variant.
The ruling Communist Party has stepped up enforcement of its “zero tolerance” strategy that aims to keep the virus out of China by finding and isolating every infected person. It suspended access to Xi’an and other cities after outbreaks were found.
Nationwide, China reported 63 new confirmed infections in the 24 hours through midnight Friday. That included 10 in Beijing and six in the neighboring port city of Tianjin.
China’s official death toll stands at 4,636 out of 105,547 confirmed cases.
Xi’an has reported 2,053 cases since Dec. 9. None were reported Friday. MDT/AP
