Tourists that haven't been to Horgos city or the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps's Cocodala city in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region within 14 days can leave by car or plane starting Thursday if they have two negative nucleic acid test results taken within the past 48 hours, according to the COVID-19 prevention and control headquarters of the region's Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture.

The two targeted cities had reported local COVID-19 patients and delayed tourists' departures from Ili to abide by local policies.

At 5:04 pm on Thursday, the airliner CA1234 took off from the airport in Yining, the prefecture's capital, to fly to Beijing.

The prefecture's COVID-19 prevention and control headquarters said more flights and railway trips taking tourists from the prefecture back to their own cities will be scheduled in the following days.