It’s Official: Czech Government Bans Direct Flights to China

The Czech government banned direct flights between the Czech Republic and China due to the new coronavirus outbreak, effective Feb. 9, a government spokeswoman said on Monday.

The flu-like virus has been declared a global emergency and spread from China’s Wuhan province to more than two dozen other countries and regions, with the first death outside of China reported on Sunday.

Prague has 12 flight connections a week with China, operated by three Chinese airlines. Hainan Airlines has been operating in Beijing since 2015, a year later Sichuan Airlines began flying to Chengdu, and in 2017 China Eastern Airlines launched a flight to Shanghai, with a stopover in Xi’an.

China’s death toll from a new coronavirus jumped above 360 on Monday, surpassing the number of fatalities from its SARS crisis two decades ago, with dozens of people dying in the epicentre’s quarantined ground zero.

The World Health Organization has declared the crisis a global health emergency, and the first foreign death from the virus was reported in the Philippines on Sunday.