International passengers flying to Beijing will instead land in airports in 12 cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing and Shenyang, as their first points of entry.

All international flights scheduled to arrive in Beijing will be redirected to airports in 12 other cities from Monday, the aviation regulator said on Sunday.

International passengers flying to Beijing will instead land in airports in 12 cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing and Shenyang, as their first points of entry, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a joint statement with four other government departments.

Passengers will go through customs clearance and quarantine at these airports, and those clearing the quarantine inspection can fly to Beijing on their original flights, it said.

Beijing reported 13 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus disease imported from abroad on Saturday. Of all 97 imported cases as of end-Saturday, 92 were Chinese nationals, with 51 Chinese students returning from studying abroad, said Gao Xiaojun, spokesman for the Beijing Health Commission.

The Beijing health commission announced separately on its website it had two more imported cases on Sunday, bringing the city’s total number to 99. For the Chinese mainland, the total number of imported cases has reached 316.

The entry arrangements for the Beijing-bound international flights will be adjusted in accordance with the COVID-19 situation, the statement said.

Beijing now requires strengthened nucleic acid testing for all overseas arrivals to the city.

Those with symptoms like fever and cough, travel histories to countries with serious outbreaks, or some other conditions worthy of note must undergo the test, according to the city’s anti-virus office.

A closed-loop management of inbound passengers is stressed as well, with priority given to the elderly, pregnant, children and disabled, the office said.

The 14-day central observation should also be carried out strictly, the office added.

Most regions of China are now at low-risk of COVID-19, but nine provinces have reported their first imported cases in the recent seven days while the number of origins of imported patients has increased from 12 to 22, Mi Feng, an official with the National Health Commission, said in Beijing.

Mi underscored the importance of implementing prevention and control measures in quarantine, transfer, treatment and isolation to curb the importation of COVID-19 cases as the pandemic has now spread to more than 180 countries and regions.