CHINA. Health authorities and government officials are battling the country’s worst outbreak of COVID-19 since the original crisis in Wuhan in early 2020.
State media Global Times reported yesterday that more than 10,000 locally transmitted cases have been reported since 1 March across 27 provinces and municipalities. It said the virus is “rife” in Shanghai and that the city, as in Shenzhen, had responded with the strictest measures to curb infections.
However, despite the fast-spreading nature of the Omicron variant, Chinese media titles have been consistently reporting that there will be no change to the country’s hitherto highly successful ‘dynamic zero-COVID’ policy. This deploys strict localised restrictions, including mass lockdowns, to curb any outbreak.
The situation is certain to have a major impact on domestic travel, with the offshore Hainan – though currently COVID-free after reporting three imported cases from a single family in late February/early March – likely to see a big short-term drop in arrivals.
BofA Global Research said in a note this week, “China domestic travel disruptions have returned with the reintroduction of travel restrictions (testing before/after trips, government discouraging travel). Domestic flights in recent days have declined to lows similar to early November 2021 when domestic air traffic was at below 40% of 2019 levels.
“Also our checks suggest international flights into Shanghai (5% of total traffic in Shanghai-Pudong and 27% of total flights in 2021) are being diverted to nearby cities to control imported cases.”
