The infamous Chinese zero-covid policy is being relaxed somewhat, despite the high infection numbers of recent days by Chinese standards. The mandatory quarantine period for incoming travelers and close contacts of people who have tested positive will be shortened by two days from seven to five. The National Health Commission announced this on Friday, Reuters news agency reported.
Airlines where too many travelers test positive for Covid-19 on a flight will also no longer be punished. China still has one of the strictest restrictions against the spread of the corona virus. Next month it will be three years since the disease first appeared in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan.
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Although the changes are minor, markets in China bounced after the news. The economy is having a hard time because of the zero-covid policy. The country continues to track down close contacts of infected people, but stops identifying ‘secondary’ contacts. The latter was a huge source of annoyance in China, where source and contact investigations sometimes put large groups of people in isolation as a result of one infection.
In recent weeks, the infection figures in China have risen high, including in Beijing, Zhengzhou and Guangzhou. Although the relaxations were received with enthusiasm, there were also soothing sounds on Friday. The question remains when China will start working on a larger-scale opening of society – and there are as yet no signs of that.