The photo taken on September 7, 2020 shows Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport. Photo: CFP

South China's Shenzhen will gradually resume domestic passenger flights as no new COVID-19 cases were reported for 17 days in the city. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of cargo flights have been operating normally, according to a statement published on the WeChat account of the Shenzhen government on Thursday. 

The average number of daily flights at the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport from June 19 was close to 320 with about 200 passenger flights each day, Chen Fanhua, General Manager of the Shenzhen Airport Group, announced during a press conference on epidemic prevention and control in Shenzhen on Thursday.

Chen also announced that a new international freight route from Shenzhen to Los Angeles will be opened on Saturday.

"In the next step, as the support capacity is gradually restored, Shenzhen airport will take into account the needs of epidemic prevention and control, together with passenger travel, and make a dynamic assessment with airlines to gradually resume some domestic flights," said Chen.

At present, all passengers flying to and from the city's airport are required to show a negative nucleic acid test within 48 hours and a green health code. 

A recent inspection revealed that hundreds of travelers a day were being turned back for failing to provide valid nucleic acid tests, said Shenzhen officials. 

Shenzhen has sufficient nucleic acid test capacity which enables passengers to depart the city on the same day that they do a test. Chinese test kit maker BGI told the Global Times recently that nucleic acid test results can be obtained in as soon as 4 hours.

At present, the daily nucleic acid screening capacity in Shenzhen can reach 550,000 test sets, and up to 4 million people can be tested if 10 samples are integrated in one testing set, Chang Juping, Vice Director of the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission, said on Thursday.

Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport recorded a peak daily passenger flow after the pandemic of 159,500 on April 30, according to industry data.

Global Times