Several Chinese cities eased further draconian anti-Covid rules on Friday after historic protests have taken place over the past few days to demand an end to restrictions and more freedoms.
Chinese anger and frustration at Beijing’s hard-line fight against the pandemic is beginning to bear fruit. In the wake of these protests, which have represented a mobilization on a scale not seen in decades, several cities have begun to ease health restrictions, such as abandoning daily mass testing, one of the arduous pillars of life under the rule of zero Covid “.
As of this Friday, December 2nd, the metropolitan city of Chengdu in the southwest of the country will no longer require a recent negative test result to enter public places or take the subway, only a green health pass confirming that it is not the Case was Pass through a “high risk” area.
And in the capital Beijing, health officials on Thursday urged hospitals to halt treatment in the absence of a negative PCR test less than 48 hours old.
Preventable Deaths
China has seen a spate of deaths when treatment or rescue was delayed by strict anti-Covid measures, most notably the recent death of a four-month-old baby who was in quarantine with his father. Also in January, a pregnant woman from Xi’an city lost her baby after the hospital refused to admit her for lack of a PCR test.
The deaths were a rallying cry during the protests, and a post went viral listing the names of all the people who had died due to neglect related to health conditions.
Many other cities hit by a surge in coronavirus cases are now allowing restaurants, malls and even schools to reopen, a clear departure from the strict lockdown rules previously in place.
Serial controversies
In the city of Ürümqi, capital of the northwestern Xinjiang region, where a deadly fire had sparked the first demonstrations, authorities also announced on Friday that supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and ski service stations are gradually reopening.
This city of more than four million has endured one of the longest lockdowns in China, with some neighborhoods shutting down in early August.
A fire at a residential building on November 26 killed ten people there and restrictions were blamed for the delay in aid.
quarantine at home
In an analysis released on Friday by the People’s Daily, the organ of the ruling Communist Party, several health experts support measures by some local authorities to keep positive cases in home quarantine.
This is a dramatic change from previous rules, which in much of the country still require infected people to be housed in government facilities.
The southern industrial city of Dongguan announced Thursday that people who meet “certain conditions” should be allowed to remain in home quarantine without specifying the conditions. The tech metropolis of Shenzhen, also to the south, introduced a similar policy on Wednesday.
“New Circumstances”
At the national level, government officials have also signaled that broader policy easing could be considered.
According to the state news agency Xinhua, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan confirmed the low risk of the Omicron variant and the improvement in the vaccination rate to the National Health Commission on Wednesday. Because of this, China’s approach to the virus “faces new circumstances,” she said.
Sun Chunlan, a central figure in China’s strategy in the face of the pandemic, made no mention of the “zero Covid” policy, raising hopes that this strategy, which has been disrupting Chinese people’s lives and their country’s economy for the past three years, would be forthcoming relaxed.