BEIJING: China on Wednesday suspended international passenger flights for the city of Xi’an due to the latest COVID-19 resurgence.
Xi’an located in northwest China’s Shaanxi has been under strict lockdown since December.
Earlier, the city had suspended domestic flights, according to the Xi’an Xianyang International Airport, reported Xinhua.
The airport is an important air transportation hub in western China, with international routes connecting 74 major destinations in 36 countries around the world.
On December 9, the city reported a locally transmitted COVID-19 case, a staffer engaged in disinfection at a quarantined hotel for inbound flights from the airport. Many locally transmitted COVID-19 cases have emerged since then, reported Xinhua.
People, living in China’s northwestern city of Xi’an, are anxious and frustrated at the local government over the growing challenge facing Beijing’s zero-Covid policy, which relies on mass testing, extensive quarantines and snaps lockdowns amid a resurgence of the virus.
For almost two years, these stringent measures have shielded the majority of the country from the worst aspects of the pandemic but as local outbreaks continue to flare up, the outcry in Xi’an raises the question of just how long zero-Covid can be sustained before public support begins to taper off, with millions of residents trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of lockdowns, CNN reported.
Over the past week, Chinese social media was inundated with cries for help and criticism over the perceived incompetence of the local Xi’an government, as per CNN. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, the hashtag “Grocery shopping in Xi’an is difficult” has been viewed 380 million times as of Monday. (ANI)
