Covid-19: Beijing, Shanghai resume trains, flights amid summer travel rush

Shanghai and Beijing, China’s top two cities, which went through stringent Covid-19 lockdowns in the last two months due to the spread of the Omicron variant, have accelerated the resumption of rail and air services, gearing up for the summer travel peak as the number of cases came down drastically.

The Chinese mainland reported 385 cases, including 75 positive cases, on Saturday.

Of the 75 locally-transmitted confirmed Covid-19 cases, 61 were reported from Anhui Province, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.

The rest of the cases were reported from Shandong, Jiangsu, Shaanxi and Shanghai, the commission said.

No cases were reported from Beijing for the past few days.

The continuously improving epidemic control situation in the two cities has greatly boosted the confidence of industry insiders, encouraging them to roll out plans to seize opportunities for a potential business peak, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday.

The Chinese economy has suffered due to lockdowns in these two cities, which are the country’s most industrialised and productive centres.

All Chinese airlines had begun to operate flights between Beijing and Shanghai, which were severely disrupted when the two cities - first Shanghai and later Beijing were hit by Omicron cases.

Shanghai was mostly shut for nearly for nearly two months, while Beijing went into high-intensity epidemic control for over a month, placing several districts under semi-lockdown.

ALSO READ:

• Hong Kong detects Covid-19 virus in sewage, distributes 290,000 rapid test kits

• UAE-India travel: Airfares rival those of European destinations

The capital city is still holding mass nucleic acid testing on alternative days of its over 21 million population.

Shanghai will also gradually resume the operation of trains to Beijing from Saturday, the Global Times report added.

• Asia