Beijing records surge in flights amid COVID-19 policy adjustments

BEIJING -- The Chinese capital Beijing has reported a surge in the number of flights recently after the country fine-tuned its COVID-19 response.

The total number of flights soared by 169 percent on Sunday from the beginning of December at the Beijing Capital International Airport and the Beijing Daxing International Airport, data from the North China branch of the country's civil aviation regulator showed.

Both airports are expected to see their daily number of flights return to 70 percent of the 2019 level in the near future.

China has recently announced a new set of measures to optimize its epidemic control, ranging from proposing home quarantine for mild and asymptomatic cases to reducing nucleic acid testing to make it easier for people to travel and enter public venues.

In accordance with the new measures, passengers are no longer required to present their health codes and negative nucleic acid test results or undergo temperature checks when entering the two airports.