Employees of the health authority test travelers at the train station for Corona.
(Photo: Xinhua/eyevine/laif)
China keeps shutting itself off. The Chinese aviation authority CAAC canceled dozens of international passenger flights on Friday, including numerous Lufthansa connections. Since the beginning of the year, the authority has suspended a total of 182 flight connections from abroad. This means that almost no more transnational passenger flights are allowed to land in the People’s Republic.
Friday’s decree applies to 30 flights from North America, Australia and Europe. Numerous Lufthansa connections from Frankfurt and Munich to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qingdao are also affected, as the German airline announced on the Chinese platform Wechat.
With the entry bans, China is trying to curb the numerous outbreaks before the Winter Olympics, which start on February 4th. The air traffic control justifies the step with the fact that despite strict test regulations, corona cases repeatedly occurred among the passengers. According to the Chinese business magazine “Caixin”, more than 600 infections among incoming passengers have been reported since January 1st.
The affected flight connections will initially be suspended for two to eight weeks, depending on how many cases of infection are found among the passengers. China is thus reducing international flight connections to a minimum. According to the authorities, there were still 200 international flights per week in September. That corresponded to two percent of the volume of 2019 before the first outbreak of the corona pandemic.
China has a strict zero-Covid policy. Those entering the country are accommodated in a quarantine hotel for at least two weeks and have to undergo numerous tests. In this way, the state leadership managed to contain the epidemic for a long time. In the summer, China did not record any new locally transmitted infections for months. However, since the travel month of October, the country has been struggling with local outbreaks in various provinces, to which the authorities are reacting with tough lockdowns. Although the number of corona cases is still very low by international comparison, observers no longer rule out a nationwide lockdown.
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With the now tightened entry controls, the government hopes to prevent the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant. According to official figures, more than 85 percent of the Chinese are vaccinated. However, studies have recently raised doubts about the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine against omicron. So far, no foreign vaccines have been approved in mainland China.
Omicron has arrived in China
Last week, the omicron variant was first detected in residents of the 14 million city of Tianjin – without prior travel history. This indicates that the variant is already circulating in the country. The neighboring city of Beijing was then cordoned off. German companies like Volkswagen had to shut down their production after the occurrence of corona cases in the workforce.
The virus variant has now also been detected in other major cities, for example in the northern Chinese port city of Dalian, in the southern Chinese cities of Zhongshan and Zuhai, and most recently in the financial metropolis of Shanghai.
The 13 million metropolis of Xi’an has also been under quarantine since the end of December. However, the outbreak there is said to be due to the delta variant. Residents have not been allowed to leave their homes since shortly before Christmas. Reports of a lack of food supplies caused outrage on social media. In addition to Xi’an, a lockdown was also imposed in the megacities of Anyang and Yuzhou.
More: Omikron has now arrived in China – and is challenging the zero-Covid strategy