People register for COVID-19 test at a testing site in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, July 21, 2021. Nanjing, which has a population of more than 9.3 million, carried out citywide nucleic acid testing starting on Wednesday.(Photo: Xinhua)

An anonymous insider told the Global Times on Wednesday that Nanjing Lukou International Airport, the transmission source of China's latest resurgence of the Delta variant that has forced Nanjing city to a de-facto shutdown, will suspend all air flights till August 11.

The insider said the airport began to cut the number of flights in and out of the airport from July 26, including flights in and out of Nanjing. Also, international flights will be cancelled till August 11.

The preliminary decision is to suspend all flights until August 11, and will not rule out the possibility of prolonged suspension, he said. 

The latest COVID-19 surge with the Delta variant detected in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, which may prove to be of a larger scale than the previous outbreak in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province. 

Local authorities in Nanjing said that the Delta variant was detected in the latest spike as it reported 31 new locally transmitted cases on Tuesday, bringing the total cases to 112, including 106 confirmed cases and six asymptomatic infections. In addition to Nanjing city, more than 6 other Chinese cities have reported positive cases caused by the Nanjing outbreak. 

Global Times