China relaxes some Covid laws even as cases top 10,000 | World news
Beijing: China’s health body on Friday reduced the number of days incoming travelers have to be quarantined from 10 to eight days and canceled a penalty for international flights that bring virus cases into the country as he urged some strict laws to restrict the spread of Covid-19. .
The new measures were announced a day after President Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, where leaders vowed to “diligently” pursue “the strong zero-Covid policy. ” while minimizing economic and social disruptions.
The National Health Commission announced a shorter isolation period for those arriving abroad and close contacts of confirmed cases from seven days of central isolation and three days of health observation at home to a five-plus-three schedule.
Health workers are not required to report secondary close contacts, the amended regulations said.
It also canceled the “dispersal” program under which airlines were temporarily suspended from flying specific routes to China for one to two weeks, depending on the number of Covid-positive passengers on board. the plane; Hong Kong removed a similar policy in July.
“Passengers of flights entering China will be required to provide a negative nucleic acid test result within 48 hours instead of two,” according to new measures published by official media.
Within China, areas with Covid outbreaks will only be identified as either “high risk” or “low risk”, depending on the transmission of the epidemic and the number of infections. A “medium-risk” classification for an area has been removed.
The Covid-19 policy reforms do not mean that the country’s ‘zero-Covid’ policy has been withdrawn, the NHC said.
“Instead, it is a gesture to adjust measures to better control outbreaks while ensuring the economy and normal activities as much as possible,” the NHC was quoted as saying by national broadcaster CCTV.
“The best and correct prevention and control measures are not rest prevention and control, let it only open and ‘reinforcement’, but to adapt to the new situation of prevention and control of the epidemic and the new characteristics of the change of Covid- 19,” NHC added.
The Politburo Council met on Wednesday to hear a report on the Covid-19 response, as well as discuss and set minimum war measures to improve prevention and epidemic control work.
“The meeting emphasized putting people and their lives above all else, preventing both imported cases and domestic renovations, and diligently pursuing a strong zero-Covid policy,” the official Xinhua news agency said. said in a report on the meeting.
The NHC on Friday reported 10,535 new cases reported at home for Wednesday, a low burden by global standards, but the highest number of infections reported in China since April 29.
Beijing reported a record 118 new domestic cases in the same period, with authorities in many parts of the city urging residents to take daily nucleic acid tests or being banned from entering public places.
