SHANGHAI/BEIJING - China tightened
checks on international travellers arriving at Beijing airport
on Sunday, after the number of imported new coronavirus
infections surpassed locally transmitted cases for a second day
in a row.
China, where the epidemic began in December, appears to now
face a greater threat of new infections from outside its borders
as it continues to slow the spread of the virus domestically.
Over a hundred countries have reported infections.
Mainland China reported 20 new cases of infections on March
14, up from 11 cases a day earlier, data from by the National
Health Commission (NHC) showed on Sunday.
Of those, 16 were imported, it said.
Beijing has redirected all international flights that were
scheduled to land at its new Daxing International Airport to
Beijing Capital International Airport, and as of Sunday has
cordoned off a special area to process these passengers, the
state-backed Beijing News reported.
Travellers who are transiting through Beijing to other
destinations will be given special assistance, it said.
Beijing's moves follow that of Shanghai, also a key hub for
international flights to China, which stepped up airport
screening last week, resulting in some passengers saying they
had to wait as long as seven hours.
Of the 16 latest imported cases, 5 were found in the capital
Beijing and three in Shanghai. The provinces of Zhejiang, Gansu
and Guangdong respectively reported four, three and one cases.
Three of the cases in Beijing involved travellers from Spain
while one came from Italy and the other from Thailand.
The Shanghai case involved a Chinese native who lived in the
Italian city of Milan.
The Gansu government said one of its cases was linked to a
charter flight from Iran while the others were travellers from
Saudi Arabia. Zhejiang province did not say where its four
imported cases were from.
Underlying growing concerns over these imported cases, the
southern province of Guangxi has said it will provide a cash
incentive of 3,000-10,000 yuan (R6,971-R23,239) to people who
provided clues on anyone who had travelled in from abroad but
not abided by quarantine rules.
Mainland China's only locally transmitted new infections on
Saturday were in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, which
recorded four cases. It was the tenth consecutive day that the
Hubei province recorded zero new infections outside Wuhan.
Push to restart
China is making efforts to restart work cross its factories
and businesses, which had been halted amid virus-related curbs,
as the numbers of new infections fall further.
Some cities with no infections in recent days, such as
Shanghai and Hangzhou, have started opening tourist attractions,
restaurants and gyms.
The western region of Xinjiang also plans to reopen schools
in batches starting from Monday, state media reported.
Limitations, however, remain in place.
Beijing, for instance, has allowed restaurants to start
reopening but requires them to prevent diners from eating meals
while directly facing each other and tables must be spaced a
metre apart, the Xinhua news agency said.
Saturday's figures bring the total number of confirmed cases
in mainland China so far to 80,844. The death toll had reached
3,199 as of the end of Saturday, up 10 from the previous
day. All ten deaths occurred in Wuhan, the NHC said.
China came in for criticism at home and globally over its
early response to the outbreak, but its draconian efforts at
control, including the lock-down of Wuhan and Hubei province,
have been effective at curbing the spread.
The government has in recent days been trying to burnish its
credentials as a responsible power by sharing expertise and
equipment with countries seeing a surge in cases, but still
faces some calls for accountability at home.
An influential former Chinese property executive who called
President Xi Jinping a "clown" over a speech he made last month
about the government's efforts to battle the coronavirus has
gone missing, three of his friends told Reuters.
His disappearance comes amid tighter censorship over how
local media and online users discuss the epidemic.