Coronavirus quarantine restrictions for people arriving in China and for those who had been in close contact with someone infected were to be eased slightly, the country’s Health Commission announced on Friday.
The new rules meant that people who travelled to China were now only required to be isolated in special quarantine hotels for five days, as opposed to the previous seven.
A requirement to follow that up with a three-day quarantine in one’s own home remained, though there were exceptions if one had no access to a private dwelling.
In those cases, the hotel quarantine would stretch to eight days.
A further relaxation meant that people departing China now only needed to present one test showing a negative coronavirus result, 48 hours before departure. Previously, two were required.
Additionally, people who had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus now only needed to isolate for eight days, instead of 10.
Whereas most of the rest of the world had switched policies in the last year or so, in an attempt to restore normalcy and live with the virus.
China continued to pursue a strict zero-COVID policy, which meant widespread lockdowns, mass testing, contact tracing and mandatory quarantines when cases flared up.
In spite of those policies, case counts had been on the rise in recent weeks, partially due to the fact that the dominant Omicron variant remained so contagious.
The Health Commission noted 10,500 new cases on Friday, an unusually high count.
According to estimates from groups outside China, about four million people – responsible for about 10 per cent of the country’s economic output are currently affected by movement restrictions.
Many other rules applied. People were required to display the results of a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on their smartphones if they wished to move about outside their home to shop for example.
It must not be older than 48 to 72 hours.
Those results were regularly controlled at checkpoints.
