BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2020) China will redirect all international flights to Beijing to 12 other cities starting Monday as part of measures to combat the coronavirus infection spread, the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) of China said in a statement on Sunday.
"Starting from 00:00 of March 23 Beijing Time [16:00 GMT Sunday], all international passenger flights bound for Beijing will be diverted to the following twelve (12) designated first points of entry: Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Hohhot, Shanghai Pudong, Jinan, Qingdao, Nanjing, Shenyang, Dalian, Zhengzhou and Xi'an," the statement says.
Passengers of international flights will undergo passport, customs and quarantine inspection at these points of entry, after which, if they "meet the epidemiological requirements", they will be allowed to fly to Beijing on the same flight.
These measures may be adjusted depending on the development of the epidemiological situation, the CAA said..
The situation with the coronavirus spread inside China has improved recently, encouraging tens of thousands of Chinese citizens to return to the country. According to China's migration watchdog, since March 11, after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 spread a pandemic, about 20,000 people arrive in China daily via international flights, with only 10 percent of them being foreigners. Imported cases of coronavirus infection have now become the main threat to the epidemiological situation of the country, so the authorities are now taking increasingly strict measures to prevent the spread of infection.
