China announced this Friday (11) the reduction of certain restrictions against Covid-19, in particular measures related to international travel. However, the Asian country remains the last major world economy to persist with a “zero Covid” strategy, with lockdowns, large-scale testing and quarantines hampering business activity and supply chains.
China announced this Friday (11) the reduction of certain restrictions against Covid-19, in particular measures related to international travel. However, the Asian country remains the last major world economy to persist with a “zero Covid” strategy, with lockdowns, large-scale testing and quarantines hampering business activity and supply chains.
According to the announcement released by the Chinese government, the quarantine period for travelers arriving in the country is shortened from 10 days to eight days, including five in state isolation centers and three at home.
During this period, newly arrived travelers will have to undergo six PCR tests and will not be able to go outside freely, according to the communist government.
Another change: Travelers will only need to present a negative PCR test for Covid-19, carried out within 48 hours before boarding a plane to China, and not the current two.
The new rules allow «entrepreneurs» and “sports groups” avoid quarantine as long as they remain in “closed circuit” during their stay.
Authorities also ended a system of sudden flight cancellations to punish airlines whose planes register a certain proportion of positive cases of the disease among their passengers.
Isolate only direct contacts
The influential Communist Party committee also lifted some restrictions that affected the daily lives of citizens.
From now on, health authorities will no longer request the identification and isolation of “secondary close contacts”. Thus, isolation will only affect people who have been in direct contact with an infected person.
The authorities also reduced the national virus risk system, from three levels to two, divided into “high risk”, restricted areas and “low risk”, with minimal measures.
People traveling from high-risk areas to low-risk areas will be required to spend seven days in home quarantine instead of staying in state institutions.
An area will be defined as low risk if it has been free of Covid-19 infections for five consecutive days.
Workers in industries where exposure to the virus is higher, such as airline crews, quarantine center workers, or airport workers, will have shorter quarantines.
On Thursday (10), the state press reported that the regime had promised to maintain the “covid zero” strategy “unswervingly”, despite the increasingly frequent demonstrations in the country.
(With information from AFP)
