China reported on Wednesday a cross-country slackening of Coronavirus limitations following fights against the hardline procedure that developed into calls for more noteworthy political opportunities.
Some mild and asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 can now be quarantined at home under the new guidelines, removing the requirement that all positive cases be isolated in central government facilities.
The National Health Commission has announced new guidelines that will reduce the frequency and scope of PCR testing, which has long been a tedious part of life in zero-Covid China.
People with non-severe Covid cases will be able to isolate at home rather than in centralized government facilities, and lockdowns will also be reduced.
In addition, except for “nursing homes, medical institutions, kindergartens, middle and high schools,” individuals will no longer be required to show a green health code on their phones in order to enter public spaces and buildings.
Forced quarantines for individuals with mild or no symptoms are no longer required under the new regulations.
According to the new regulations, “asymptomatic infected persons and mild cases who are eligible for home isolation are generally isolated at home, or they can voluntarily choose centralised isolation for treatment.”
“Mass PCR testing is only done in high-risk work units, schools, hospitals, and nursing homes; They added, “PCR testing’s scope and frequency will be further reduced.”
“Individuals traversing regions don’t have to give a 48-hour test result and don’t have to test upon appearance.”
The NHC stated that China will also accelerate elderly vaccination, which Beijing’s no-tolerance approach to Covid has long been viewed as a major obstacle.
Late last month, China saw a flurry of unusual protests against the zero-Covid strategy of the ruling Communist Party.
Some of them even called for the resignation of President Xi Jinping, and their demands for more political freedoms grew.
After that, protests were repressed, but some restrictions were eased, and some Chinese cities tried to ease restrictions on movement and mass testing.
This week, Beijing, the capital, announced that commuters could no longer use public transportation if they had a virus test that came back negative within 48 hours.
The same rules were announced for financial hub Shanghai, which went through a brutal two-month lockdown this year. Residents now have permission to enter outdoor venues like parks and tourist attractions without passing a recent test.
China’s tightly controlled media, which had previously been dominated by gloomy coverage of the virus’s dangers and pandemic chaos abroad, dramatically changed its tone to support a tentative move away from zero-Covid.
In an article that was published by the China Youth Daily, which is run by the Communist Party, Guangzhou-based medicine professor Chong Yutian stated that the prevalent Omicron strain is “not at all like the Delta variant from last year.”
He reassured readers that, “this is already widely known, the vast majority will have no or light symptoms after infection with the Omicron variant,” and “very few will go on to have severe symptoms.”
However, according to calculations made on Monday by analysts at the Japanese company Nomura, 53 cities—which are home to nearly a third of China’s population—still had some restrictions in place.
The government released additional data demonstrating the crippling economic effects of zero-Covid hours before Wednesday’s announcement.
In November, both imports and exports fell to levels not seen since the beginning of 2020.
The General Administration of Customs reports that year-over-year imports decreased by 10.6 percent in November, marking the largest decline since May 2020. Over the same time period, exports decreased by 8.7%.
