China Continues Lifting Covid Restrictions Despite Near-Record Case Numbers – Beijing removed its Covid-19 testing booths on Friday, while Shenzhen announced it would no longer require commuters to produce their test results in order to travel, as the easing of Covid prohibitions in China gathered pace. As daily cases hovered near all-time highs, some cities eased coronavirus testing procedures and quarantine regulations in an effort to make China’s zero-Covid policy more targeted in the midst of an economic recession and public turmoil.
Guangzhou and Beijing have taken the initiative in effecting change. Shenzhen, a city in southern China, declared on Saturday that it will no longer require negative Covid test results to utilize public transportation or enter parks, following similar actions by Chengdu and Tianjin, two of China’s largest cities. As a result of Beijing no longer requiring negative test results as a condition for entry to locations such as supermarkets, a number of testing booths have been closed.
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On Monday, this rule will be enforced in subways, as well as numerous other locations, including offices. On Friday, a video of employees in Beijing using a crane to load a testing booth onto a truck went viral on Chinese social media. Some Beijing neighborhoods have placed on social media rules on how positive cases can be confined at home, a groundbreaking action that represents a departure from the government directive to transfer such individuals to central quarantine.
China will soon announce a reduction in testing requirements across the nation. The nation began modifying its strategy last month, asking local governments to become more targeted. A catastrophic apartment fire in the city of Urumqi in China’s far west spurred dozens of protests over Covid restrictions in a surge unprecedented in mainland China since Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2012.
During a meeting with European Union officials on Thursday in Beijing, Xi is said to have blamed the large protests on young people upset by years of pandemic, but stated that the now-dominant Omicron version of the virus allowed for fewer restrictions.
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