China has signaled a change in its Covid stance as it tries to ease some virus restrictions despite the number of daily cases.
Dozens of districts in Shanghai and Guangzhou, cities that have seen a spike in cases, were released from lockdown measures on Thursday.
The country’s deputy prime minister also announced that the country was facing a “new situation”.
This comes as China is witnessing massive protests against its zero-covid policy.
The unrest was sparked by a fire at a high-rise block in the western Xinjiang region that killed 10 people last week. Many Chinese believe the city’s long-standing Covid restrictions contributed to the deaths, although officials deny this.
This led to mass protests in various cities, which have since died down amid a heavy police presence.
Restrictions in major cities such as Guangzhou were suddenly lifted on Wednesday, hours after violent protests in the city led to clashes between police and protesters.
One community in the capital Beijing has also allowed mildly symptomatic Covid cases to be isolated at home – a far cry from protocols earlier this year that locked down entire buildings and communities, according to a JEE News report. observed, sometimes resulting in only one positive case. .
Other major cities such as Shanghai and Chongqing also saw some relaxation of laws.
It comes as Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, one of China’s most senior epidemic officials, said the virus’ ability to cause disease was weakening.
According to a JEE News report, he said, “The country is facing a new situation and new tasks in epidemic prevention and control as the pathogenicity of the Omicron virus weakens, more people are vaccinated and the virus is controlled.” Experience accumulates.”
This is in stark contrast to the authorities’ earlier message that the country needs to maintain a strict zero-covid policy.
Former state media editor Hu Zhijin, who now offers pro-Communist Party commentary on Twitter, insisted the moves showed China was now “accelerating the move away from mass lockdowns”.
After lockdown measures were lifted in many parts of Guangzhou, Lijin Hong, an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, said “it will take some time for the city to recover. Still, it’s great to see the city of Guangzhou again.” “
China has recorded the highest number of daily Covid cases since the start of the pandemic in recent days – more than 36,000 cases were recorded on Wednesday.
However, the number is still very low for a country of 1.4 billion people and just over 5,200 people have officially died since the pandemic began.
This equates to three Covid deaths per million in China, compared with 3,000 per million in the US and 2,400 per million in the UK, although direct comparisons between countries are difficult.
