First flights leave Chinese city Xi’an as travel curbs ease

BEIJING (AP) — The first commercial airline flights in one month have taken off from Xi’an in western China as the government eased travel curbs imposed after a coronavirus outbreak ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. The website of Xi’an Xianyang International Airport said seven planes took off on Saturday. Four are due to arrive Sunday. Xi’an is a city of 13 million people about 600 miles southwest of Beijing. Access was suspended Dec. 22 following an outbreak attributed to the coronavirus’s delta variant. The ruling Communist Party has stepped up enforcement of its “zero tolerance” strategy that aims to keep the virus out of China by finding and isolating every infected person. It suspended access to Xi’an and other cities after outbreaks were found.