China implements epidemic control measures on high-risk inbound flights

To effectively prevent and control the risk of imported COVID-19 cases, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) recently issued a notice to further implement strict management of high-risk international passenger flights. 

Under the strengthened measures, international passenger flights from high-risk areas cannot exceed 75 percent of the flight's passenger load, the aviation authority said in a statement on Tuesday.

The CAAC has put the measures into three categories to better mitigate the public health risk. The first category is for high-risk flights. The second one refers to the flights which passengers with positive nucleic acid test results on the same route after five days in three consecutive weeks, and the third one is for the flights that resume operations after a "circuit breaker" has been imposed because of excessive imported cases.

However, the aviation regulator said it would remove the 75 percent cap passenger loads for some international flights if no incoming passengers test positive for COVID-19 for three weeks.

So far, the CAAC has canceled 52 inbound flights since the COVID-19 outbreak.