Beijing will gradually resume direct inbound flights to the city from eight countries, including Cambodia, Greece, Denmark, Thailand, Austria and Canada, starting Thursday, another sign that the Chinese capital is returning to normal.

A flight from Phnom Penh, Cambodia became the first to arrive in Beijing on Thursday since the city placed a ban on all international inbound flights in March over concerns about imported cases. 

The countries were given the green light because of their low incidence of COVID-19, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.

Priority will be given to countries with low risk of cross-border infection and where nucleic acid tests have been conducted, Xu Hejian, spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government, told a press conference on Wednesday.

All passengers departing from outside the Chinese mainland were previously required to present a negative test result five days before departure, but as inbound flights are expected now, it has been cut to three days.

Upon arrival, passengers are still required to enter a 14-day quarantine at a center on the outskirts of Beijing, Xu said. They will have to undergo another test when they complete the quarantine and report on their body temperatures for another seven days.

Beijing will take in no more than 1,000 passengers in a day, and only Chinese citizens or citizens of the country of the flight's origin are allowed to aboard, said Xu.

Negative COVID-19 test results before boarding will be prerequisites for passengers of Beijing-bound flights.