Haikou airport suspends some flights in anti-virus move

All international freight charter flights taking off and landing at Haikou Meilan International Airport in Hainan province have been suspended and the airport's international freight area is being tightly managed, after the coronavirus test results of an airport worker came back positive on Thursday, the Haikou city government said.

The patient, surnamed Lin, a 38-year-old male, works for Meilan International Airport Cargo and lives in Yunlong town in Haikou's Qiongshan district. He had no history of traveling abroad, visiting medium- or high-risk areas and had not had close contact with any person suspected or confirmed with COVID-19, officials at the Haikou COVID-19 prevention and control headquarters said.

Lin has been sent to Haikou Fourth People's Hospital for quarantine and treatment.

The local government has undertaken special control procedures in 24 places Lin had been active. As of 10 pm on Thursday, a total of 26,600 samples had been collected from people for testing, 10,330 of which have come back negative. Results of the remaining samples were to be released soon, said Ling Yun, vice mayor of Haikou.

Before Lin's diagnosis, Meilan Airport operated 10 international and regional freight routes, reaching 11 overseas destinations. International passenger flights have not resumed since they were suspended last year.

Airport authorities said that starting on Friday, passengers must show their health codes and negative certificates for nucleic acid tests administered within 48 hours when entering the airport terminal.

Lin's case raised Haikou's newly confirmed count to two. The first case, a female patient, was confirmed on Sunday. There was no overlap in their movements, according to the city's health authorities.