China will end quarantine for travelers from January 8, marking the last major shift from the country’s zero-covid policy, officials said.
After three years of closed borders, it will effectively reopen the country to people who have work and study visas, or are trying to visit family.
But it comes as China struggles with a terrifying outbreak of the virus in the wake of the lifting of restrictions.
Reports say hospitals are overflowing and elderly people are dying.
The true number — the daily count of cases and deaths — is currently unknown because officials have stopped releasing Covid data.
Nearly 4,000 new Covid infections and a few deaths were reported each day in Beijing last week.
On Sunday, it said it would stop publishing case numbers altogether. But British health data firm Airfinity estimates that China is experiencing more than a million infections and 5,000 deaths a day, according to JEE News.
China is the last major world economy to “live with Covid” after three years of lockdowns, closed borders and mandatory quarantines for Covid cases and contacts.
The so-called zero-covid approach has damaged the economy and bored citizens with restrictions and frequent tests. Resentment against the policy exploded in November in unprecedented public protests against President Xi Jinping, prompting authorities to abandon the Covid rules just weeks later.
Closed borders remain the last major barrier. Since March 2020, anyone entering China has had to undergo mandatory quarantine at a state facility – for up to three weeks at a time. which was recently reduced to five days.
But on Monday, the National Health Commission announced that on January 8, Covid will be officially downgraded to a Class B infectious disease.
This means that quarantine will be lifted – although arriving passengers will still need to undergo a PCR test – and a cap on the daily number of flights into China will also be lifted.
Officials said they would also “improve” visa arrangements for foreigners wishing to come to China for work and study, as well as for family visits and reunification.
It is not clear if this includes tourist visas, but officials said a pilot program would be launched for international cruise ships.
The new rules have been welcomed by many Chinese who will now be able to travel abroad again. The country’s top online travel agencies reported a spike in traffic within hours of the announcement.
But many have also expressed anger at the sudden independence after years of control.
“I’m happy about it but also speechless. If we’re doing it [reopening] anyway – why did I have to deal with all the daily Covid tests and lockdowns this year?” said Rachel Liu, who lives in Shanghai.
He said he endured a three-month lockdown in April, but almost everyone in his family had contracted the virus in recent weeks.
He said his parents, grandparents and colleagues – living in three different cities, Xi’an, Shanghai and Hangzhou – all came down with fever last week.
