- China to allow home quarantine, reduce mass testing – sources
- The top official says the severity of the weakening of the virus
- The change comes after a series of demonstrations
- The biggest show of public defiance in years
HONG KONG/BEIJING, Dec 1 (Reuters) – China will announce an easing of its quarantine protocols for COVID-19 in the coming days and a reduction in mass testing, sources told Reuters, a marked shift from politics after anger for the world. tougher curbs fueled widespread protests.
Cases across the country remain near record highs, but the changes come as some cities have been lifting their lockdowns in recent days and a senior official said the virus’s ability to cause disease has was debilitating
Health authorities who announced the relaxation in their areas have not mentioned the protests, China’s biggest show of civil disobedience in years, which ranged from candlelight vigils in Beijing to street clashes with police in Guangzhou.
Measures to be announced include a reduction in the use of mass testing and regular nucleic acid testing, as well as measures to allow positive cases and close contacts to self-isolate at home under certain conditions, said sources familiar with the matter.
This is a far cry from previous protocols that led to public frustrations as entire communities were locked down, sometimes for weeks, even after a single positive case.
Frustration boiled over last week in unprecedented public demonstrations of defiance in mainland China since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012. The unrest comes as the economy is set to enter a new era of much slower growth than seen in decades.
On Thursday night, Shanghai train commuters reported receiving an unsolicited document over the air on their phones that said life in China would only improve if there was a full lifting of the blockade and Xi stepped down, a seemingly novel tactic amid a heavy police presence in some. cities before the weekend.
CHANGE OF RULES
Less than 24 hours after violent protests in Guangzhou on Tuesday, authorities in at least seven districts in the sprawling manufacturing hub said they were lifting temporary lockdowns. One district said it would allow schools, restaurants and businesses, including movie theaters, to reopen.
Cities such as Chongqing and Zhengzhou also announced relief.
The sense of official momentum toward a historic change built on Thursday when Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who is overseeing the COVID effort, told a meeting of frontline experts that Omicron’s variant was weakening in its ability to cause disease, allowing China to improve prevention efforts.
“After nearly three years of fighting the epidemic, our country’s medical and health system has stood the test,” he said in remarks carried by the official Xinhua news agency.
“The vaccination rate of the entire population is over 90%, and public health awareness and quality have improved significantly,” he said.
State media reported that Sun said a day earlier that China was facing a “new situation” in its response to COVID, urging greater “optimization” of testing, treatment and quarantine policies.
The mention of the weakening of the pathogenicity of the COVID contrasts with previous messages from a usually hawkish Sun about the lethality of the virus.
“Sun’s (earlier) speech, in addition to the notable easing of COVID control measures in Guangzhou yesterday, sends another strong signal that the zero COVID policy will end in the coming months,” the analysts said from Nomura in a research note.
“These two events may point to the beginning of the end of zero-COVID.”
In the capital, Beijing, some communities have begun to prepare for the changes.
A community in the city’s east held an online survey this week about the possibility of positive cases isolating themselves at home, residents said.
“I certainly welcome the decision of our residential community to take this vote regardless of the outcome,” said Tom Simpson, China director general of the China-Britain Business Council.
He said his main concern was being forced into a quarantine facility, where “the conditions can be unpleasant to say the least.”
Prominent Nationalist commentator Hu Xijin said in a social media post on Wednesday that many asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus in Beijing were already in quarantine at home.
REOPEN NEXT YEAR?
Expectations have grown around the world that China, while still trying to contain infections, could look to reopen its borders sometime next year once it achieves better vaccination rates among its reluctant elderly.
Health experts warn of widespread illness and death if COVID is let loose before vaccination is ramped up.
Chinese stocks and markets around the world initially fell after weekend protests in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities, but later rebounded on hopes that public pressure could lead to a new approach by the authorities
More outbreaks of COVID could weigh on China’s economic activity in the near term, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday, adding that it saw room for a safe recalibration of policies that could allow economic growth to pick up in 2023 .
China’s tight containment measures have slowed domestic economic activity this year and have spread to other countries due to supply chain disruptions.
After weak data from an official survey on Wednesday, the Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers’ index showed factory activity contracted in November for a fourth consecutive month.
While the change in tone on COVID appears to be a response to public discontent with strict measures, authorities are also looking to question those present at the demonstrations.
The China Dissent Monitor, run by the US government-funded Freedom House, estimates that at least 27 demonstrations took place across China from Saturday to Monday. Australia’s ASPI think tank estimated 51 protests in 24 cities.
(This story has been re-created to correct the story’s writing credit)
Additional reporting by Julie Zhu in Hong Kong and Kevin Huang and Ellen Zhang in Beijing; Written by Marius Zaharia, John Geddie and Greg Torode; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel and Conor Humphries
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.