Beijing introduced new restrictions on entry to the Chinese capital on Wednesday November 17, significantly reducing flights from the rest of the country for fear of transmission of Covid-19.
Two and a half months before the opening of the Winter Olympics on February 4, China is seeking at all costs to limit the risks of contamination, in accordance with its zero Covid policy.
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Since midnight Wednesday, all travelers leaving for the capital must produce a negative test dating back less than 48 hours, regardless of their place of departure. Until now, such an obligation only applied to people arriving from
“at risk” areas
. In addition, flights from cities
"at medium or high risk"
are now abolished. For the provincial capitals in this case, flights are limited to one per day, with a maximum fill of 75% of the seats. More than a hundred cities in the country are considered at risk.
China, where the epidemic first appeared almost two years ago, largely controlled the contagion on its soil as early as the spring of 2020, thanks to mandatory quarantines, strict confinements, isolation of contact cases, at drastic filtering of international arrivals or tracking of movements.
The results are incomparable with those of the rest of the world, with 31 cases of contamination officially announced for the whole country on Tuesday over the last 24 hours.
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But the authorities have been on the alert since last month to stop an outbreak linked, originally, to the movements of a group of contaminated tourists and which affects many provinces in the northern half.
“Beijing is the capital and has important regional and international connections. The virus must not enter Beijing and must not spread to Beijing, ”
said Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the town hall, on Tuesday. While China has repeatedly referred to an initial arrival of the coronavirus in the country via frozen food, some 30,000 employees in this sector in Beijing will have to undergo screening tests every three days.
The Winter Olympics will take place in a “bubble”, in which only Chinese spectators will be admitted.
The estimated 3,000 athletes will either have to be vaccinated or undergo a three-week quarantine on arrival, followed by daily tests.
