CHINA-TRAVEL: RAIL TRAVEL DURING CHINA'S SPRING FESTIVAL FELL ALMOST 70% BETWEEN JANUARY 18 AND FEBRUARY 11
China’s railway passenger traffic plunged almost 70% during the 15 days before the Lunar New Year as authorities urged people to “celebrate in place” and avoid unnecessary travel to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Normally hundreds of millions of people travel from big cities to their rural hometowns during the annual Spring Festival, but between January 28 and February 11 this year, China’s railways transported just 52.33 million passengers, down 68.8% from a year ago. China also encountered its worst resurgence in nearly 10 months as several provinces reported new clusters. Between January 2 and 28, more than 2,600 new cases were confirmed in the Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.
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