On Sunday, China announced two new confirmed COVID-19 cases and four new asymptomatic cases, including one German national who was on a chartered flight from Frankfurt to Tianjin.
Tianjin’s municipal health commission said the man arrived in the city on May 30, with a temperature of 36.3 degrees Celsius and no related symptoms. The chartered Lufthansa flight carried around 200 passengers – mainly German business executives and family members. Global Times reports that passengers who took the flight received nucleic acid testing prior to boarding the plane in Germany. Yang Zhangqiu, a deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University said the difference in nucleic acid test results may be attributed to “the primer designs of the test kits.”
This was the first German-chartered flight to China as the two countries begin restarting their economies. China recently announced a change to its flight policy, which granted ‘green channels’ to chartered flights for eight countries (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland).
Aside from chartered flights, China accommodates 134 international flights each week, according to Caixin Global. The weekly number of international flights was previously set to hit 407 starting June 1, however China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) decided to hold off on rapidly increasing flights, citing current conditions.
READ MORE: China Relaxes Restrictions for Chartered Flights
[Cover image via Unsplash]
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