Moscow-Shanghai flight grounded after five COVID-19 cases

Aeroflot-Russian Airlines' flight from Moscow to Shanghai has been suspended for two weeks, starting from August 16, by China's civil aviation regulator.

Flight SU208 was was put on hold after five passengers on a flight from Moscow tested positive for COVID-19 on July 30, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Thursday.

The airline was earlier punished by the CAAC in June, when, too, five passengers tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

In May, the airline was penalized as eight passengers tested positive for COVID-19. It was forced to cap the load factor, or percentage of seats filled, to no more than 40 percent for four weeks beginning on May 31.

The same flight has been suspended several times since last October. It was halted for a week on October 19 after eight travelers tested positive on October 2. The ban was extended to four weeks due to 11 passengers testing positive on October 9.

Last December, the flight was again suspended for four weeks as 11 people on board tested positive .

The CAAC launched its suspension mechanism for international passenger flights in June 2020, and updated the policy last December to further contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

A flight suspension is extended from one week to two if the number of passengers testing positive reaches five. The suspension lasts for four weeks if the number reaches 10.

If all of an airline's inbound passengers test negative three weeks in a row, it will be allowed to increase its flights to two per week.