Xi'an suspends international passenger flights amid COVID-19 resurgence

The city of Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has suspended international passenger flights since Wednesday due to the latest COVID-19 resurgence.

Previously, the city has already suspended domestic flights, according to the Xi'an Xianyang International Airport on Thursday.

The airport is an important air transportation hub in western China, with international routes connecting 74 major destinations in 36 countries around the world.

On December 9, the city reported a locally transmitted COVID-19 case, a staffer engaged in disinfection at a quarantined hotel for inbound flights from the airport. Many locally transmitted COVID-19 cases have emerged since then.

Previous viral genome sequencing of locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the outbreak identified the strains as the highly infectious Delta variant, which are highly homologous with imported cases of an inbound flight on December 4.