If you want to know what the government’s Covid plan is in China, look at what it says rather than what it does.
Take Beijing for example.
There has been no significant drop in infections, yet public transport no longer requires PCR test results, bars and restaurants are slowly reopening, and in some cases people are being allowed to go home after contracting Covid. Instead, isolation is being allowed. Central quarantine facilities.
From Tuesday, test results are not required to go to supermarkets, office buildings and some other public places.
So when you look at what’s happening here right now, the momentum seems clear – the government seems to have quietly dropped zero Covid as a goal.
This doesn’t mean all Covid-related restrictions are lifted – for example, you need to get tested in the last 48 hours to go to hospitals, schools, restaurants and gyms. It also doesn’t mean that some restrictions won’t take place in half a year.
But the stated goal of reducing each outbreak to zero new infections… fell short.
The new plan appears to be to slow the spread of the virus, hopefully enabling the health system to cope with the disease rather than trying to crush it.
This may include monitoring the virus as it spreads in an effort to manage the flow of infection, serious illness and death.
Sometimes that may mean reimposing certain measures, but cities won’t need to record zero cases to stay open.
Beijing is not alone in removing some of the measures — and they vary widely by region.
In the southeastern Zhejiang province, for example, people working in certain jobs are not required to undergo any formal testing.
The eastern province of Shandong will not require a check to buy cough medicine or drive on the highway. Central Hainan Province will not require a PCR test to enter housing communities.
Similar easing is taking place in the major cities of Shanghai, Wuhan, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu.
Urumqi, the capital of western Xinjiang region, has reopened supermarkets, hotels, cinemas and gyms. Public transport has resumed in Tibet.
Just a few weeks ago, the Chinese government was urging the population to stay on course with a zero-covid approach.
Despite overwhelming evidence that China’s pandemic-control measures are hurting the economy, undermining people’s livelihoods, Xi Jinping stood in the Great Hall of the People during the recent Communist Party Congress. He reiterated that there will be no retreat from his signature policy.
Then there were protests.
A tower block fire in Urumqi killed 10 people, sparking public outrage.
On social media, the deaths were blamed on Covid restrictions, which were said to have hampered access for fire crews and blocked escape routes for residents. Beijing denies this and the BBC has not been able to confirm the claims, but that the fire sparked nationwide protests is not disputed.
