Beijing and Shenzhen Ease Further COVID-19 Restrictions As China Gains Momentum

Beijing and Shenzhen ease further COVID-19 restrictions as China gains momentum. as the  easing of  virus restrictions in China accelerated. 

Though daily cases are hovering around an all-time high, some cities are taking steps to relax COVID-19 testing requirements and quarantine rules as China seeks to extend its zero-COVID- policy  amid an economic slowdown and public frustration fueling unrest has escalated to specify. 

The southern city of Shenzhen said it would no longer require people to present a negative COVID-19 test result to use public transportation or enter parks, following similar measures by Chengdu and Tianjin. 

Many test stands in the Chinese capital  Beijing have also been closed as the city stops requiring negative test results as a condition of entering places like supermarkets and prepares to do so. likes this for the subway from Monday.

Many other locations, including offices, have yet to be tested. A video showing workers in Beijing removing a test cab using a crane on  a truck went viral on Chinese social media on Friday. "That should have been removed sooner!" said one commenter. "Banished to history," said another.

Reuters could not confirm the authenticity of the images. However, in some of the remaining booths, local residents complained of hour-long queues for  tests due to the closures. 

Three years into the pandemic, China has been an outlier with its zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19, which has led to it imposing lockdowns and frequent virus testing. He says  the measures are necessary to save lives and avoid overloading his healthcare system. China started changing its approach last month in , asking locations to be more specific.

But initial reactions have been one of confusion and even tighter lockdowns as cities struggle to control the surge in cases. 

Then a deadly apartment fire last month in the far western city of Urumqi sparked dozens of protests against the COVID-19 restrictions. in an unprecedented wave  in mainland China since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. 

China will announce further reductions in testing requirements across the country and isolating positive cases and close contacts  under certain conditions at home, sources familiar with the matter said Reuters previously with this week. 

At a meeting with European Union officials in Beijing on Thursday, Xi blamed the mass protests on young people frustrated by years of the COVID-19 pandemic, but said the now-dominant Omicron variant of the virus paved the way. 

Way for fewer restrictions, EU officials said. Officials recently began downplaying the dangers of Omicron, a major change in messaging in a country where fears of COVID  run deep.

On Friday, some Beijing neighborhoods posted guidelines on social media on how to quarantine positive cases  at home. This is a landmark move that represents a departure from official guidelines for sending these individuals to central quarantine. Nonetheless, the relief has also been accompanied by concerns, particularly from groups who feel more exposed to the disease. 

And many analysts say they still don't expect any meaningful reopening until at least after March next year, citing China's need to get results in a just-launched vaccination campaign for the elderly. 

Estimates of how many deaths China could see if it moves towards full reopening have ranged from 1.3 million to more than 2 million, although some researchers said the number of deaths could fall dramatically if it focuses on vaccination would.

None of this should be construed as a fundamental departure from the zero-COVID policy, but rather as an attempt to make it more streamlined and cost-effective. 

The goal remains to bring cases back  to near zero," Capital Economics said in a note, citing the recent tightening of the  death rate policy than  many Asian countries that reopened earlier, undermining China's success in the absence of COVID-19." , they said.