BEIJING — China continues to take multi-pronged measures to protect the health of Chinese studying abroad while curbing the potential import of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an aviation official said on April 13.

In April, the country has arranged seven special flights to bring 1,278 Chinese citizens home from countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Spain, among whom 1,067 are students, Jin Junhao, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) told a news conference.

In March, nine special flights have flown back 1,466 Chinese nationals from Iran and Italy, including overseas students and health experts who were in the countries to help fight the disease, said Jin.

To support Chinese students who remained abroad, the CAAC has sent them over 300,000 health kits, weighing 300 metric tons, as of April 7, and another 200,000 health kits will be delivered before April 15, Jin said.

The CAAC has cut international passenger flights, but it still retains no more than 134 regular international passenger flights per week with 40 countries and 61 cities overseas, Jin said.