China eases virus policy following demonstrations
BEIJING: Searches on Chinese travel sites surged and social media platforms were flooded with delight and relief on Wednesday as the public cheered the biggest loosening of some of the world’s strictest Covid policies after widespread protests.
China on Wednesday rolled back more of its controversial ‘zero-covid’ policy, including allowing mild or asymptomatic patients to quarantine at home rather than at centralised facilities and doing away with nucleic acid tests (NAT) to travel within the country. The government also said people do not need to show NAT results to enter most venues in the country other than designated places like schools and hospitals.
The 10 new rules announced on Wednesday by the State Council, the country’s Cabinet, mean that China is finally, and rapidly, dismantling the zerocovid policy, which had kept infection numbers low, but severely disrupted lives and damaged the economy.
The changes mean that China is finally looking to “live with the virus”, which is what the rest of the world is doing.
Travel platforms from Trip.com to Qunar said searches for air tickets to cities such as the tourist spots of Sanya and Harbin jumped as much as seven times after news of the looser rules was announced, with many people looking to travel around the Lunar New Year holiday in January.
Wednesday’s announcement quickly soared to the most viewed topic on China’s Weibo platform, with many people “finally” embracing a return to normal.
“The epidemic fight has gone on for three years, this is a history-making day,” one Weibo-user said comment.
Dozens of people also flocked to the Weibo account of Li Wenliang, a doctor in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged, who died in 2020 after sounding an early alarm about Covid-19 and whose last post has been an online haven for those looking to vent about personal woes and public policies.
“Doctor, we’ve made it through, we’re going to be free,”wrote one user.
“Daylight is here,” wrote another. The curbs, however, have been eased as China grapples with its worst country-wide outbreak with over 25,000 positive cases being logged daily for weeks. A vast majority of the cases, however, are mild, state media reports have said.
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