China introduces stricter measures for Chinese New Year travel rush to prevent Covid-19 resurgence

As the Chinese New Year travel rush kicked off on Thursday, transport operators in China tightened measures to prevent the resurgence of Covid-19 cases and provide better service to passengers. The Ministry of Transport further cut its forecast of passenger flow for the Chinese New Year travel season on Thursday, as the country has adopted strict anti-epidemic measures to curb the spread of Covid-19. On the first day of the Chinese New Year travel rush, the country was expected to handle 19.91m passengers trips. According to the ministry, about 1.15b passenger trips were expected to be made during the 40-day travel rush, a year-on-year decline of 20% and more than 60% lower than in 2019. "The number is changing constantly," Ministry of Transport spokesman Wu Chungeng said Thursday. "The daily passenger trips are growing slightly based on the data for the past three days," he said, adding that the number might be lower than expected because people were advised not to travel during the holiday. On Thursday, the civil aviation sector expected to handle 8,850 flights and 540,000 passenger trips, a year-on-year decrease of 46.7% and 71.2%, respectively.<br/>