China faces COVID outbreaks after it eases restrictions

BEIJING — A rash of COVID-19 cases in schools and businesses was reported by social media users Friday across China after the ruling Communist Party loosened anti-virus rules as it tries to reverse a deepening economic slump.

Official data showed a fall in new cases, but the data no longer cover big parts of the population after the government Wednesday ended mandatory testing for many people. That was part of dramatic changes aimed at gradually emerging from “zero-COVID” restrictions that have confined millions of people to their homes and sparked protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to resign.

“There’s very few people coming in because there’s so many cases,” said Gang Xueping, a waitress in a Beijing restaurant. “The country’s just opened up. The first one or two months are definitely going to be serious. Nobody’s used to this yet.”

In other cities, social media users said co-workers or classmates were ill and some businesses closed from lack of staff. It wasn’t clear from those accounts, many of which couldn’t be independently confirmed, how far above the official figure the total case numbers might be.

“I’m really speechless. Half of the company’s people are out sick, but they still won’t let us all stay home,” said a post signed “Tunnel Mouth” on the popular Sina Weibo platform. The user gave no name and didn’t respond to questions sent through the account, which said the user was in Beijing.

The reports echo the experience of the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world that have struggled with outbreaks while trying to restore business activity. But they are a jarring change for China, where “zero COVID,” which aims to isolate every case, disrupted daily life and depressed economic activity but kept infection rates low.

Xi’s government began to loosen controls Nov. 11 after promising to reduce their cost and disruption. Imports tumbled 10.9% from a year ago in November in a sign of weak demand. Auto sales fell 26.5% in October.

Relaxing coronavirus controls “will lead to greater outbreaks,” Neil Thomas and Laura Gloudeman of Eurasia Group said in a report, “but Beijing is unlikely to return to the extended blanket lockdowns that crashed the economy earlier this year.”

The changes suggest that the ruling party is easing away from its goal of preventing virus transmission, the basis of its zero-tolerance policy, but officials say that strategy still is in effect.

Restrictions probably must stay in place at least through mid-2023, public health experts and economists say. They say millions of elderly people need to be vaccinated, which will take months, and hospitals strengthened to cope with a surge in cases. Officials announced a vaccination campaign last week.

On Friday, the government reported 16,797 new cases, including 13,160 without symptoms. That was down about one-fifth from the previous day and less than half of last week’s daily peak above 40,000.

More changes announced Wednesday allow people with mild COVID-19 cases to isolate at home instead of going to quarantine centers, which some complained were crowded and unsanitary. That addressed a major irritant for the public.

A requirement for subway riders, supermarket shoppers and others to show negative coronavirus tests also was dropped, though they are still needed for schools and hospitals.

A post signed “Where Dreams Begin Under Starlight” by a user in Dazhou, a city in Sichuan province, said all but five students in a public school class of 46 were infected.

“It’s really amazing that the school insists students go to school,” the user wrote. The user didn’t respond to a question sent through the account.

The requirement for hundreds of millions of people to be tested as often as once a day in some areas over the last two years helped the government spot infections with no symptoms. Ending that approach reduces the cost of monitoring employees and customers at offices, shops and other businesses. But it increases the risk they might spread the coronavirus.

This week’s changes follow protests that erupted Nov. 25 in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities against the human cost of “zero COVID.”

It isn’t clear whether any of the changes were a direct response to protests, which died out following a security crackdown.

The ruling party’s Politburo on Wednesday declared stabilizing weak economic growth to be its priority, though leaders have said local officials are still expected to protect the public.

Party leaders stopped talking about the official 5.5% annual economic growth target after the economy shrank by 2.6% from the previous quarter in the three months ending in June. That was after Shanghai and other industrial centers shut down for up to two months to fight outbreaks.