Guangdong travel agencies halt group trips to Beijing

Some travel agencies in Guangdong province have suspended group trips to Beijing after the country's capital reported several locally transmitted COVID-19 cases recently.

Although it has not received the official ban, Guangdong China Travel Service has suspended new groups to Beijing during the Spring Festival holiday, which starts in mid-February, reported Southern Metropolis Daily on Sunday.

Upon inquiries on Beijing trips, the employees suggested not going.

All the group trips to Beijing during the New Year holidays arranged by Nanhu International Travel Service would be canceled and no new groups would be organized in the near future, according to the report.

Leisure trips to and from Beijing will be put under strict control and Beijing authorities called on travel agencies to suspend group trips to Beijing during the New Year and Spring Festival holidays, said Zhou Weimin, an official of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, at a press conference on Sunday.

Several locally transmitted COVID-19 cases have been reported recently in the districts of Chaoyang, Xicheng and Shunyi in Beijing.

Meanwhile, an asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier was reported in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Sunday. The 27-year-old man, who lives in Bao'an district, made business trips to Beijing between Dec 7 and 12, and between Dec 21 and 25.

Fifty-seven people who had close contact with the man, including 48 people on board the same flight, will be put under quarantine at designated places, according to the health commission of Shenzhen.