The first 21 days of the Spring Festival travel rush saw a 16.5 percent decline in passenger trips compared with the same period last year, statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Transport (MOT) showed Friday.

A total of 1.24 billion passenger trips were made nationwide from January 10 to 30, including 186 million trips made by railway, 1.09 billion road trips, 15.74 million boat trips and 33.37 million flights.

To contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, passenger train services, inter-provincial passenger bus services and flights in many Chinese cities have been suspended. 

As of January 30, the number of passenger trips plummeted by 84.1 percent to 15.13 million compared with the equivalent day last year. Both railway trips and air trips witnessed a slump of over 70 percent.

Read more: Inter-provincial bus services suspended in key Chinese cities to curb virus spread

(Infographic designed by Du Chenxin)