Government News
Loosening of COVID restrictions in major policy shift 2022-12-07
China announced on Wednesday the most sweeping changes to its anti-COVID measures since the pandemic began three years ago.
The relaxation of rules includes allowing infected people with mild or no symptoms to quarantine at home and dropping testing for people traveling within the country, the Joint Preventive and Control Mechanism of the State Council, China's Cabinet, announced on Wednesday.
01 Home quarantine
Asymptomatic infections and confirmed cases in mild condition will be quarantined at home in general if their apartments can meet quarantine requirements.
They can also undergo centrally quarantined observation or treatment voluntarily.
Close contacts of infected persons are also allowed to quarantine at home for five days rather than spend a week in central quarantine as was previously required.
Close contacts can choose central quarantine voluntarily. They will be dismissed if a PCR test returns negative on the fifth day.
02 Nucleic acid tests
People will not be subjected to mass testing according to administrative regions, and the scope and frequency of testing will be further reduced.
No PCR or health code check is required for domestic travelers. No more testing on arrivals.
Apart from senior homes, welfare institutions, medical and child nurseries as well as schools and other places with special COVID requirements, no PCR or health code check is required.
Except for high-risk areas, people's movement should not been restricted, while work, production and business cannot be suspended.
03 High-risk areas
The scale of high-risk areas is now narrowed down to residential buildings, floors and even single units.
Designations cannot be expanded casually to entire communities, subdistricts or towns. Temporary lockdowns are prohibited.
Blocking the fire exits or gates of buildings and communities is prohibited. People are allowed to go to hospitals or seek emergency services freely.
People are also free to buy fever, cough, antibiotic, cold and other non-prescription medicines, both online and in stores.
04 Ramping up vaccination
The State Council also called to further ramp up vaccination among elderly population to protect the vulnerable from COVID-19.
Vaccination efforts should be ramped up among the elderly, with a focus on improving the vaccination rate among people aged between 60 and 79.
The vaccination rate among people aged 80 and older should be also accelerated. Vaccination services will be optimized by setting up special channels and temporary vaccination sites, and deploying mobile vaccination vehicles, the State Council says.
Shanghai will further optimize its COVID-19 measures for domestic travelers and close contacts from Thursday following the relaxation of national policies.
If you are a domestic traveler to Shanghai
1. You are no longer required to register on Suishenban app or report to neighborhood committees, companies or hotels after arriving.
2. No PCR test is required upon arrivals. The previous three daily PCR test requirements have also been scraped. Travelers failed to receive a PCR test will no longer see their health code turning yellow.
3.Travelers will no longer be banned from entering public places, including eateries, supermarkets and entertainment venues, for five days upon arrival.
If you are a close contact
1. Close contacts of infections can receive a 5-day home quarantine rather than a 5-day centralized quarantine + 3-day home quarantine, if their apartments can meet quarantine requirements. They can, though, voluntarily choose to stay in central quarantine.
2. The close contacts undergoing central quarantine will be allowed to go home to finish the remaining quarantine period at home.
3. The close contacts without eligible home quarantine requirements still have to be quarantined in a quarantine center.
A tourist captures the Autumn colors in Qiuxia Park
The new measures have triggered a surge in instantaneous air ticket searches, according to travel operators in Shanghai.
Health code and negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results for cross-region passengers are no longer required under the new measures released by the State Council, the country's Cabinet, on Wednesday afternoon. Moreover, PCR screening for passengers on arrival has also been scrapped.
Shanghai-based online travel operator Trip.com said its instantaneous air ticket searches soared 160 percent immediately after the release of the measures – a peak for the period before the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Air tickets between January 16 and 21, the Chinese Lunar New Year eve, were the most searched, which posted a record in the past three years.
"It is a significant boost to the tourism market," said Shen Jiani, a tourism researcher at the online travel site.
Mafengwo, a Chinese travel services and social networking website, said instantaneous searches of tours involving long-distance destinations soared immediately following the announcement with Sanya topping the list, witnessing a surge of 450 percent, followed by Xishuangbanna, Changbai Mountain, Hangzhou, Beijing and Chengdu.
Tuniu, another online travel operator, said its travel bookings between December 1 and 7 grew 72 percent from the period between November 24 and 30.
Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou are the major source markets, it said.
It expects interprovincial tour market will warm up gradually and customized group tours will witness a boom of bookings.
"The 10 new measures send a ray of hope on China's tourism industry, which has just thawed, and eliminate tourists' concerns," said Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of Shanghai Spring Tour.
Travel operators said that people seem to be more optimistic about their travel plans in 2023 under relaxed COVID-19 restrictions.
Shanghai Spring Tour said its orders on Monday surged 103 percent from last Monday, with ski or beach resorts like the Changbai Mountain, Xiamen, Sanya and Beihai being the most popular destinations.
Trip.com said searches for trips in 2023 grew more than 900 percent on its online platform recently compared with the same period last year as of Wednesday noon.
Source: City News Service
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