(Yicai Global) Sept. 3 -- As China’s pandemic prevention and control measures gain the upper hand, Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan, Greece, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Canada and other countries with relatively few imported cases may now resume nine direct flights to Beijing from today without their having to bypass through one of the designated first entry points.

The first plane to land after the restoration will be the Air China one from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Beijing today, the official website of the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced yesterday, but without stating which of the eight nations is granted two daily flights.

The 17 cities in the first entry list include Shanghai and Hefei in East China, Wuhan and Changsha in its center, Chengdu in the southwest and northwestern Lanzhou.

No more than 500 passengers in all may enter the Chinese capital from countries each day during the trial phase. Arrivals will still face a two-week quarantine.

For all direct international passenger flights to Beijing, once the number of imported cases on a single flight exceeds five, thus triggering the tripwire standard, circuit breaker measures will immediately activate and the first entry point policy will be restored. For more than three imported cases on a single flight, the entry point requirement will be reinstated from Beijing to the designated first entry point for that run only.

All international passenger flights entering the Chinse capital have had to divert to designated first entry points since March 23 to strictly control the risk of imported infections in the city. Passengers passing the inspection were then able to proceed on to Beijing on their original flight and quarantine there on landing.

As of Sept. 1, 511 international passenger flights had diverted to a first point of entry.

Editor: Ben Armour