Delta Flight to Shanghai Turns Back to Seattle Due to New COVID Rules

A Delta Airlines flight from the U.S. to China had to turn back last week due to new cleaning requirements in the midst of a COVID-19 surge. The flight was going from Seattle, Washington to Shanghai, but according to a report by The Associated Press, it turned around on the advice of Shanghai Pudong International Airport officials. It is still not clear what the new cleaning requirements in that airport are.

Customers were furious about the canceled flight to Shanghai, since many were unable to even find a different route to the country. The timing of visas for one or both countries, as well as the timing for COVID-19 tests further complicated an already fraught travel process. However, travel restrictions are only getting tighter all over China as the country takes every precaution in preparation for the Winter Olympics in Beijing a few weeks from now. Officials from the Shanghai airport told the AP that their new mandates "require significantly extended ground time and are not operationally viable for Delta."

The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco reportedly protested the returned flight from Beijing, saying it "had made a stern representation to the airline," but the damage was done. The new "disinfection procedures" have also impacted two Taiwan-based airlines: China Airlines and EVA Air.

According to Taiwan's semi-official Central News Agency, both airlines have had similarly abrupt flight delays or cancellations to Shanghai Pudong International Airport since last week. Now, EVA is suspending all flights from two cities to Shanghai until Feb. 3, while China Airlines is suspending flights from one city to Shanghai until the end of January.

The precautions come amid news of a coronavirus outbreak in Xi'an, a city just 600 miles from Beijing. When Xi'an reported over 300 new cases of COVID-19 this weekend, local officials responded with measures that might seem remarkable to readers in the U.S. — stay-at-home orders for a population of 13 million people, with a schedule to allow one member of each household to go out shopping for necessities every two days.

The results speak for themselves. China has reported a total of 4,636 COVID-19 deaths since January of 2020, while the U.S. has suffered over 800,000 deaths. The spike in cases due to the spread of the omicron variant has some people calling for lockdown procedures once again.