The city of Xi’an in China’s Shaanxi province, which is currently under lockdown due to the latest Covid-19 outbreak, has suspended international passenger flights, according to authorities on Thursday.
According to the Xi’an Xianyang International Airport, the city had previously suspended domestic flights.
According to the Xinhua news agency, the airport is an important air transportation hub in western China, with international routes connecting 74 major destinations in 36 countries around the world.
The city reported a locally transmitted Covid-19 case on December 9, 2021, involving a staffer engaged in disinfection at a quarantined hotel for inbound flights from the airport.
According to the provincial health commission, the city has recorded a total of 1,856 cases since then.
On Thursday, the provincial caseload increased to 1,883 after 63 locally transmitted infections were reported in the previous 24 hours.
Previous viral genome sequencing of the outbreak’s locally transmitted cases revealed the strains to be the highly infectious Delta variant.
