Staff members disinfect the Shijiazhuang Railway Station West Square in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei province, Jan. 31, 2021. Local authorities have conducted disinfection work on key public areas such as Shijiazhuang Railway Station to prepare for the work resumption. (Photo by Liang Zidong/Xinhua)

Multiple cities in China have eased transportation restrictions ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year after the country has recorded several days with no locally transmitted COVID-19 cases. People with green health code can travel more freely within and outside their residential province and visit friends and family during the holidays. 

Railway services from North China's Hebei Province to Beijing resumed operation on Tuesday, three days before the formal start of the Spring Festival, the most important festival among Chinese people for family reunion. Passengers can enter the stations with a negative certificate of nucleic acid test conducted within the previous seven days. 

Shijiazhuang, the epicenter city in the latest outbreak in Hebei, resumed its train service on Monday after a one-month suspension due to the COVID-19 flare-up.  

The two airports in Beijing also adjusted its entrance policies on Monday, allowing passengers to use digital health codes recognized anywhere in the country, not limited to Beijing as per original requirements. 

To ensure orderly traffic flow during the holidays, dubbed as the country's busiest time for travel, many cities have implemented plans with classified requirements for people identified with different level of COVID-19 risks.

According to the plans, ordinary people from COVID-19 low-risk regions are not required to undergo nucleic acid tests before traveling within or outside their residential province - a green health code will be sufficient. 

For the COVID-19 key group of people from low-risk regions, including staff at the isolation center and workers in the imported cold chain food industry and transportation industry, a negative certificate of nucleic acid test within seven days still need to be presented for inter-provincial or inter-city travels. 

A valid examination certificate shall be handled by the local disease control department before entering a port or station. 

Authorities in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, another region that was seriously hit by the epidemic, and East China's Zhejiang Province both announced the travel plans on Monday. 

The Chinese mainland has not reported a single domestic confirmed COVID-19 case for two consecutive days as of Tuesday. 

Global Times