Amidst Covid surge, China to redirect international flights from Shanghai from March 21

Beijing (China): China will redirect some international flights from the country's biggest city of Shanghai to other cities from March 21 amid a new COVID-19 outbreak, the country's aviation authorities said on Tuesday.

Shanghai has entered a partial lockdown. Residents are barred from leaving the city unless it is necessary.

In recent weeks, Shanghai has faced a surge in COVID-19 infections, forcing the authorities to redirect some international passenger flights to other Chinese cities from March 21 to May 1.

The latest move will affect more than 100 flights to 22 destinations of five Chinese airlines. Media reports said flights will be transferred from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to the airports located in Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Kunming, Nanchang, Ningbo, Taiyuan, Xiamen and other cities.

On Tuesday, China reported two times more new COVID-19 cases from the previous day as the country faces, by far, the biggest outbreak since the pandemic began.

The country identified 3,507 new locally spread cases in the last 24 hours, up from 1,337 a day earlier, The Washington Post reported citing China's National Health Commission.

China has imposed various rules to keep the COVID-19 cases away from the country since the deadly initial outbreak in the city of Wuhan in early 2020 but the fast-spreading variant known as "stealth omicron" is testing China's zero-tolerance strategy.

The country's COVID-19 cases are low as compared to elsewhere in the world but in the first two weeks of March, China recorded over 10,000 cases which exceeded the previous flare-ups.