SHANGHAI (Reuters). China has suspended dozens more international flights due to an increase in Omicron cases worldwide. Shanghai, however, restricted tourist activity while it fought against local COVID-19 infections.

Many local governments are urging citizens not to travel to China without permission.

Shanghai’s Tourism and Culture Authority has ordered that online and offline tourism agencies must stop organising groups tours to and from Shanghai. It reported on Thursday five new infections in Shanghai, each linked with an overseas arrival.

This order was in accordance with a national guideline that prohibits tourist activity in areas where new infections have occurred. It came just a month after Shanghai had lifted the November suspension.

China drastically reduced international arrivals in the aftermath of the pandemic. However, the numbers of infected travelers arriving in Shanghai (a key financial center) during the first 10 Days of January exceeded all December’s.

China reported Omicron transmissions in three cities and the northern city Tianjin, but did not say how many Omicron cases they have detected.

Omicron, according to authorities, increases the chance of COVID-19 transmission when more people visit China during the Lunar New Year holiday.

China announced Friday that thirty international inbound flights from China were cancelled due to COVID-19 issues. This includes four from the United States. China has already announced the cancellations of 74 United States-bound flights this year.

The Olympic athletes and others involved with the Olympics arrive largely by special charter flight and are immediately placed in a strict “closed loop” which separates them and the larger population.

Shanghai, unlike other Chinese cities has not implemented any wider restrictions that could disrupt normal life. Instead, it has adopted a surgical approach. The “virus risk” was only raised for the small bubble-tea shop in which three of the five people who were infected worked.

MORE QUARANTINE ROOMS

China has reported total of 143 cases confirmed locally, as well as four carriers domestically transmissible asymptomatic for January 13.

New cases of Omicron or Delta were most common in Henan and Tianjin, both in the central province.

China is still a relatively small country in terms of the number of cases, however, it has set out to eliminate local clusters. This strategy has required local governments to swiftly isolate and treat the affected as well their closest contacts.

This week hundreds of thousands were placed in quarantine in China’s most-raised cities or in centralised facilities.

After its mayor stated that the city of Yuzhou, Henan had more than 1000 rooms available at present, state media reported that 6,000 additional temporary quarantine rooms were built.

Zhengzhou is Henan’s capital and has been speeding up the preparation for 5,000 quarantine areas. It aims to have them ready by April according to a local official.