Hubei Resumes Domestic Flights

The coronavirus epicentre, Hubei, has resumed services of domestic flights. With the exception of its capital city Wuhan, domestic passenger flights resumed operations on Sunday. 

Hubei Province has been under lockdown for more than two months after the first case of COVID-19 was detected last year. Since no new coronavirus cases were reported for several days, the government has decided to ease the lockdown.

According to Xinhua, the state-run news agency, Flight FU6779 with 64 passengers left the Three Gorges Airport in Yichang for Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province.

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), except for Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, all passenger and cargo flights on domestic air routes via airports in Hubei resumed from Sunday. Xinhua reports stated that the airport has just installed thermal imaging equipment for mass body temperature checks on people in the departure and arrival halls. Isolation areas have also been prepared to quarantine people tested with fever. 

Apart from that, local bus and train services have already resumed in Wuhan and Hubei province. According to the CAAC, flight operations from Wuhan will begin from April 8, 2020. 

However, international flight operations to and from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and those between Hubei and Beijing are currently excluded.

In further attempts to normalise life in China, a section of the Great Wall of China was also opened to the visitors, with measures in place to check any signs of new cases.

The coronavirus, first originated in Wuhan in December 2019, has led to a lockdown across various countries.