China cancels weddings and hundreds of flights due to new COVID-19 outbreaks

Beijing authorities canceled hundreds of flights and asked their citizens to postpone weddings and hold shorter funerals, after tightening containment measures on Friday to stop new outbreaks of covid-19 three months before the start of the Winter Olympics .

The most populous country in the world reduced the number of infections to its lowest since the beginning of the pandemic last spring, thanks to its zero tolerance measures that involve the closure of borders, selective confinements and long quarantine periods.

But China is facing new outbreaks in a dozen tourist-friendly regions, prompting authorities to order millions of citizens to stay home, restrict travel between provinces and increase coronavirus testing. .

The number of cases remains much lower than in most countries, with 48 new infections reported this Friday.

However, the authorities prefer not to take risks and imposed tens of thousands of people in Beijing, the city that will host the Winter Olympics in February, confine themselves after some cases of coronavirus were detected.

Residents should “postpone weddings, hold short funerals, not organize banquets and reduce unnecessary gatherings,” said the deputy director of the disease control center, Pang Xinghuo at a news conference on Friday.

Likewise, tourist sites will limit their capacity, while the recently opened Universal Studios complex will enter a “state of emergency for epidemiological prevention,” said the deputy director of the Information Office, Xu Hejian.

According to the Chinese platform Feichangzhun, half of the flights from the capital’s two main airports were canceled this Friday.

In front of the capital’s medical centers, there were long lines of citizens who wanted to comply with the strict anticovid controls implemented by the Chinese health authorities.

Tu Anling, a 24-year-old computer scientist, told the AFP that he needed proof to be able to travel by train to Nanjing, a city about 1,000 kilometers south of the capital.

“Initially, I managed to meet my friends here (in Beijing), but the recent outbreak caused many of them to say they were no longer coming,” Tu Anling said.

Many regions are requiring passengers to show a negative test before entering, especially those traveling from cities that have recently reported cases. (I)