China’s health government on Wednesday announced sweeping changes to the country’s “zero covid” policies, about a week after occasional nationwide protests against draconian pandemic controls that separated families, forced others to quarantine outside their homes and gave the impression of having emerged. social and economic costs.
The National Health Commission has a 10-point memorandum detailing a series of measures reversing some of the COVID-19 restrictions.
Among the highlights: serious lockdowns will be limited to specific areas, such as a specific building or floor, as opposed to entire neighborhoods and districts; People who test positive for the virus can self-isolate at home than in crowded cashier hospitals; And schools can remain open in case of infection, as long as there isn’t a wider outbreak.
Many needs have also been eliminated.
“The departments involved in all localities will have to continue. . . and resolutely apply the simplified ‘one length for all’ approach,” the commission said on its website.
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For the duration of the pandemic, now entering its fourth year, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s strict and questionable virus policies have been blamed for disrupting daily life and employment while dealing a blow to the national economy.
“Those who are hired by the state have been specifically affected by the 0 COVID measures. The strategy has intensified economic pressures, exacerbated unemployment among emerging youth and tested the patience of the entire country,” Yu Jie, a China expert in London who is thanking Chatham House, wrote in an op-ed.
“Zero-COVID was once a distinctive policy to demonstrate the supremacy of China’s governing formula and meet public expectations for pandemic control, but now it has left Beijing between a rock and a hard place,” he said.
Increasingly, this strategy contrasted with the antivirus movements carried out by many other countries, which opened up in the hope of learning how to deal with the virus.
The protests spread to several major cities. It is the largest public expression of discontent with the Chinese government since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. They were triggered by a combination of developing public frustration with “COVID-zero” and a chimney in a residential building in western China that killed 10 people. Citizens later blamed the closure procedures for preventing rescuers from entering construction earlier, an accusation denied by Chinese authorities.
To appease protesters, China has been gradually lifting restrictions for several days. On Monday, travelers from Beijing and at least 16 other cities were allowed to board buses and subways without virus testing for the past 48 hours for the first time in months. , according to the Associated Press. AP noted that the National Health Commission made no reference to the fire, protests or any official “zero-COVID” target, which has been well known under Xi’s authority.