China Continues To Lift Covid-19 Curbs Despite Cases Being At All-Time High

As daily cases are close to an all-time high, some cities took steps to loosen the testing requirements for Covid-19 and quarantine rules as China looks to make its zero-Covid policy more targeted.

Image used for Representational Purpose only.

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New Delhi: Covid-19 testing booths have been removed in Beijing on Friday. Shenzhen, like other cities, announced it would no longer require commuters to present their test results to travel as the easing of Covid restrictions in China gathered pace, as the news agency Reuters reported.

As daily cases are close to an all-time high, some cities have taken steps to loosen the testing requirements for Covid-19 and quarantine rules as China looks to make its zero-Covid policy more targeted and focused amid an economic slowdown and public frustration that has boiled over into unrest.

Cities including Guangzhou and Beijing are ahead in making changes. The southern city of Shenzhen on Saturday announced it would no longer require people to show a negative Covid test result to use public transport or enter parks, after similar moves by Chengdu and Tianjin, among China’s biggest cities.

Many testing booths in Beijing were shut as the capital stopped demanding negative test results as a condition to enter places such as supermarkets. This rule will apply to subways on Monday, although many other venues including offices still have the requirement.

A video showing workers in Beijing removing a testing booth by crane onto a truck went viral on Chinese social media on Friday.

Some Beijing neighbourhoods posted guidelines on social media on how positive cases can be quarantined at home, a landmark move that marks a break from official guidance to send such people to central quarantine.

China To Announce Further Reduction In Testing Requirements

China is set to announce a further nationwide reduction in testing requirements. The country began tweaking its approach last month, urging localities to become more targeted.

A deadly apartment fire last month in the far-western city of Urumqi sparked dozens of protests against Covid curbs in a wave unprecedented in mainland China since the president, Xi Jinping, took power in 2012.

During a meeting with European Union officials in Beijing on Thursday, Xi is said to have blamed the mass protests on youth frustrated by years of the pandemic but said the now-dominant Omicron variant of the virus paved the way for fewer restrictions, as reported by Reuters.

(With Reuters Inputs)