Zhuhai announced today (Friday) a series of relaxations of pandemic controls, following the country’s top healthcare officials’ lead after a spate of anti-lockdown protests and public acts of defiance roiled the Chinese mainland.
According to an announcement published by Zhuhai health authorities this morning, the neighbouring city will conduct pandemic prevention measures in a more ‘normalized, scientific, and precise’ manner in future.
District-wide lockdowns will no longer exist, as the definition of ‘a high-risk zone’ will be specifically limited to ‘a residential unit or a building’ only. Any restrictions imposed on an establishment will be lifted ‘in a timely manner’ as soon as criteria are met.
Meanwhile, authorities have lowered the frequency of large-scale nucleic acid tests (NAT), while regular NATs will only roll out for individuals classed as ‘key work groups’.
Residents are now spared the mandatory requirement of a negative NAT result issued within 48 or 24 hours for boarding buses or admission to hospitals.
Instead, they just have to produce a green health code to gain entry to most places in the city, except for those considered to be ‘crowded spots’.
Visitors to the same location as the infected will no longer see their health codes turn yellow as long as they are not classified as close contacts.
Also, eligible close contacts are allowed to self-quarantine at home, without being transferred to designated medical observation points.
The neighboring city stressed that they would speed up vaccination, especially for the elderly.
On Wednesday, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan signalled a possible shift in the country’s stringent approach to battling the coronavirus when speaking at a National Health Commission meeting, as “the Omicron variant is weakening and vaccination rates are improving”, Xinhua news agency reported.
She said the country is facing “a new situation” and “new tasks” in epidemic prevention and control, and urged efforts to further optimize its Covid-19 response, improve diagnosis, testing, treatment and quarantine; strengthen immunization of the whole population, particularly senior citizens; and step up preparations for medical resources.
Over the past three years, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council have always put people’s health and safety first, and effectively dealt with uncertainties arising from Covid-19 with consistent and flexible strategies, Sun was quoted as saying.
The remarks came as authorities – Guangzhou – announced a relaxation of a number of Covid-19 restrictions on Wednesday, following reports of fresh anti-lockdown protests in the provincial capital of Guangdong on Tuesday night, according to witnesses and online footage.
Protests that erupted in major Chinese cities over the weekend were directed at Covid lockdowns, but also included voices aimed at government officials, from whom protesters clamoured for ‘a greater level of freedom’.
Bloomberg also reported that Beijing is considering home isolation, a new policy that will first benefit residents of its most populous district.
