China’s Nanjing airport reopens after closure over Covid-19 outbreak
Beijing, Aug 26 (EFE).- The Lukou International Airport in the eastern city of Nanjing, the hub of China’s new Covid-19 wave, resumed its operation on Thursday after a month-long closure in the wake of the coronavirus restrictions.
The first commercial flight after the reopening took off today at 10.16 am local time, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
The authorities canceled all flights from Lukou since July end after discovering a new virus outbreak that had originated at the airport.
The cluster of infections emerged on July 20 when a few cleaners at the airport tested positive during routine testing.
The local press claimed the cleaners had disinfected a plane from Russia that carried a passenger infected with the highly infectious Delta variant.
The flight from Russia landed in Nanjing on July 10. The virus later spread to a dozen Chinese provinces.
The variant spread to provinces and cities across the country, including Northeast China’s Liaoning Province, Central China’s Hunan, and East China’s Shandong and Anhui provinces.
Chinese authorities held accountable some officials for their lax prevention and control and failure to perform their duties that caused the outbreak.
Authorities in the Nanjing city cleared all medium and high-risk areas for Covid-19 on Aug.19, following restrictive measures that helped contain the outbreak.
According to the latest official figures, China currently has 1,497 active coronavirus cases. Fourteen of them are seriously ill.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Asian country has registered 94,733 infections, including 4,636 deaths. EFE
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