NZ restores flights to Shanghai as Shanghai demands LOCKDOWN

There is so much insanity coming across the wires that I cannot keep.

These two headlines came out within hours of each other.

Either this government of Jacinda Adern is MONUMENTALLY inept (despite being told she is the best leader in the world - or she is something else entirely.

Air New Zealand will resume passenger flights between Auckland and Shanghai from June 22, despite a new outbreak of Covid-19 in that country.

It comes on the same day as news that New Zealand's first two cases of Covid-19 in 24 days were travellers from the UK.

China has been grappling with a new coronavirus outbreak in the capital Beijing.

In addition to locking down communities and ordering mass testing, China's capital is banning residents of areas considered at high risk from leaving the city, health authorities say. Those from such areas who have already left must report to local health bureaus as soon as possible.

The number of passengers on buses, trains and subways will also be limited and all will be required to wear masks. The outbreak has been traced to a wholesale market in the city's southwest.

Shanghai was the first route to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and has been suspended since early February.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/121846714/air-new-zealand-resuming-flights-to-china-despite-new-outbreak

China’s financial hub of Shanghai demanded some travellers from Beijing be quarantined for two weeks, as 27 new COVID-19 cases took the capital’s current outbreak to 106 since Thursday.

That makes it the most serious flare-up in China since February, stoking fears of a second wave of the respiratory disease which emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year and has now infected more than 8 million people worldwide.

“Beijing will take the most resolute, decisive, and strict measures to contain the outbreak,” Xu Hejian, spokesman at the Beijing city government, said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The outbreak has been traced to the sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food centre in the southwest of Beijing where thousands of tonnes of vegetables, fruits and meat change hands each day.

Beijing had designated 22 neighbourhoods as medium-risk areas as of Monday. Medium-risk areas are required to take stringent measures to block the potential entry of infection.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-china/virus-hit-beijing-tightens-outbound-travel-shanghai-demands-quarantine-idUKKBN23N04Y?fbclid=IwAR24WV8cTFD3gD5ICNR-zVcVobEWPZKXLXFz0lOptMPMXvNZFynDe0H2xnU