CNA – People in China are resuming travel ahead of the Chinese New Year, despite worries about infections after Beijing dropped COVID-19 curbs last month, with air passenger volumes recovering to 63 per cent of 2019 levels since the annual travel season began.
The rapid business recovery is challenging airlines’ ability to ensure safety, and great attention to pandemic-related risks is needed, said head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China Song Zhiyong.
The industry needs to “fully understand the special nature, and complexity of the Spring Festival migration in 2023”, Song said in a statement on Friday.
Since the January 7 start of the annual migration, as Chinese return to their hometowns in preparation for the holiday set to begin on January 21, flight passenger numbers stand at 63 per cent of the 2019 figure before the pandemic, the aviation regulator said.
China re-opened its borders on January 8 after having abruptly abandoned in December an anti-virus regime of frequent testing, travel curbs and mass lockdowns that fuelled nationwide protests in late November.
The Transport Ministry predicted passenger traffic volumes to jump 99.5 per cent on the year during the festival migration, which runs until February 15, or a recovery to 70.3 per cent of 2019 levels.
In Macao, Friday’s 46,000 daily inbound travellers were the highest number since COVID-19 emerged in early 2020, the majority from the mainland, the city government said. It expects a Spring Festival boom in tourism.
However, infections are expected to surge in rural areas as hundreds of millions return home from big cities.
That fear is reflected in a scramble for oxygen-generating equipment, as most products of top-selling brands are sold out on e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, according to buyers’ online comments.
One firm, Jiangsu Yuyue Medical Equipment and Supply is marshalling all possible resources to respond to customer needs, it assured investors on an online platform recently.
In addition, surging demand for health checks on those who have recovered from COVID-19 is boosting hospital demand for CT scanning equipment, the China Securities Journal said.
This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of risks stemming from holiday travel.
One Chinese expert warned that the worst of the outbreak has not yet passed, media outlet Caixin said this week. “Our priority focus has been on the large cities. It is time to focus on rural areas,” it quoted former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Zeng Guang as saying.
Many in the countryside, where medical facilities are relatively poor, were being left behind, including the elderly, the sick and the disabled, he added.
