China is slowly beginning to live with Covid as it continues to ease more restrictions that have been in effect since the world woke up to a viral outbreak in Wuhan in 2019. On Monday, the National Health Commission announced that passengers arriving from abroad will no longer be required to undergo quarantine. The new rule will come into effect from January 8.
Currently, arriving passengers must quarantine for five days at a hotel, followed by three days at home. The scrapping of quarantine rule is seen as a major u-turn by China in how it dealt with the pandemic so far. President Xi Jinping-led administration that relied on a now-scrapped zero-Covid policy, that included long quarantines, mandatory testing and harsh lockdowns, to stop the spread of the infection is now reopening travel with the rest of the world.
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The latest move comes even as rural Chinese cities struggle to cope with an infection explosion that has overburdened hospitals and pushed crematoriums to the limits. China has stopped reporting the daily Covid count, but those numbers have become unreliable since it scrapped mandatory mass testing rules.
Now, The Global Times has reported that no Covid tests will be carried out on international arrivals. Only passengers with fever or other flu-like symptoms will be subjected to antigen tests at airports, the report said.
NO TESTING, NO QUARANTINE FOR ARRIVALS
China’s health commission has said that curbs were eased to make it easier for some foreigners to enter the country, though it didn’t include tourists. It did indicate that Chinese citizens would be gradually allowed to travel abroad for tourism again, an important source of revenue for hotels and related businesses in many countries.
The testing, quarantine mandate had prevented most Chinese people from travelling abroad, limited face-to-face diplomatic exchanges and sharply reduced the number of foreigners in China for work and study, the Guardian reported.
However, inbound passengers will still need a negative virus test 48 hours before departure and passengers will be required to wear protective masks on board planes.
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PFIZER’S COVID DRUG IN BEIJING
In another major development, China has decided to distribute Pfizer’s Covid drug Paxlovid to capital Beijing’s community health centers in the coming days, state media reported on Monday. Beijing and Shanghai are two major cities that have been reeling under the massive spike in infection which triggered a shortage of drugs in pharmacies.
Paxlovid remains the only foreign medicine to treat Covid that has been approved by China’s regulator for nationwide use, but access is limited.
VACCINATION OF ELDERLY
China is aiming to further increase the vaccination rate among the elderly, and promote second doses among people at high risk of severe illness. But many remain sceptical among the elderly as they are alarmed by stories of fevers, blood clots and other side effects, AP reported.
The health commission has recorded only six Covid fatalities this month, bringing the country’s official toll to 5,241. That is despite multiple reports by families of relatives dying.
China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official Covid toll, a health official said last week. That unusually narrow definition excludes many deaths other countries would attribute to Covid.
In the big industrial province Zhejiang, authorities are going door-to-door and paying elderly to take the Covid vaccine. Zhejiang is reporting over one million cases a day and the numbers are expected to double.
Experts have forecast two million deaths in China through the end of 2023.
The arrival of the fast-spreading Omicron variant, BF.7, in late 2021 made China’s zero-Covid strategy increasingly untenable, requiring ever-wider lockdowns that stymied growth and disrupted lives.
The policy was scrapped after residents took to the streets against the harsh restrictions. But the shift in policy has flooded hospitals with feverish, wheezing patients.
