After a week of historic rallies, China will relax COVID restrictions.
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According to sources China is about to publicly state a loosening of its COVID-19 quarantine protocols and a decrease in mass testing. This is a significant shift in policy following widespread protests sparked by resentment over the world's strictest curbs.
Cases countrywide are still around record highs, although there have been improvements recently as some communities have lifted their lockdowns, and a senior official claimed that the virus's potential to spread sickness was waning.
The protests, the largest display of civil disobedience in China in years, which spanned from candle-lit vigils in Beijing to street confrontations with police in Guangzhou, were not addressed by the health authorities that announced the easing in their regions.
According to the sources acquainted with the situation, the upcoming measures will reduce the use of mass testing and routine nucleic acid tests as well as take steps to permit positive cases and close contacts to separate at home under specific circumstances.
That contrasts sharply with prior procedures that angered the public by locking down entire neighbourhoods following merely a single positive case, sometimes for weeks.
Last Thursday, the anger erupted in unprecedented public defiance in mainland China after President Xi Jinping assumed office in 2012. Unrest is occurring as the economy prepares to enter a new phase of significantly slower development than has been the case in decades.
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Train passengers in Shanghai reported receiving an unsolicited letter on their phones on Thursday night that stated that Xi should resign and that the lockdown should be completely lifted. This appears to be a novel approach given the substantial police presence in various cities coming of the weekend.
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In at least seven districts of the vast manufacturing powerhouse, police announced they were removing temporary lockdowns less than 24 hours after violent protests on Tuesday. One district announced that it would permit the reopening of theatres, restaurants, and other businesses.
Cities like Zhengzhou and Chongqing reported easings as well.
As Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who oversees COVID activities, informed a gathering of frontline experts on Thursday that the Omicron variant's capacity to spread disease was waning, China could increase its preventative efforts, there was a growing sense of official momentum toward a historic transition.
The official news agency quoted her as saying, "After nearly three years of combatting the pandemic, our country's medical and healthcare system has survived the test.Over 90% of the population is immunised, and public health awareness and quality have significantly increased," she claimed.
Sun was quoted by state media as having said the day before that China was in a "new scenario" in regards to its response to COVID and that testing, treatment, and quarantine procedures should be further "optimised."
The statement that COVID's pathogenicity is declining contrasts with earlier statements from the typically pessimistic Sun about the virus' impending doom.
"These two incidents may herald the beginning of zero-COVID's demise."
Some neighbourhoods in the capital, Beijing, have started to make changes.
This week, a community in the east of the city conducted an online survey on the likelihood of positive cases isolated at home, according to the locals.
Tom Simpson, general director for China at the China-Britain Business Council, a resident, said: "I certainly support the decision of our residential community to run this poll regardless of the outcome."
Unaffected by the results, resident Tom Simpson, general director for China at the China-Britain Business Council, said: "I certainly support the decision of our residential community to undertake this poll."
He claimed that having to enter a quarantine centre, where "conditions can be terrible to say the least," was his major worry.
In a social media post on Wednesday, popular nationalist commentator Hu Xijin claimed that many asymptomatic coronavirus carriers in Beijing had already started to quarantine themselves at home.
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IS IT REOPENING NEXT YEAR?
Expectations have grown that China, which is currently working to limit infections, may consider opening its borders again at some time in 2019 once it improves vaccination rates among its wary senior population.
If COVID is released into the wild before vaccination rates are increased, health experts foresee widespread sickness and death.
After the weekend protests in Shanghai, Beijing, and other cities, Chinese stocks and markets worldwide initially declined, but later recovered on the belief that public pressure may prompt authorities to adopt a new strategy.
The International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday that additional COVID outbreaks might have a negative impact on China's economic activity in the near future. However, it added that there was room for safe policy adjustments that might enable economic growth to resume in 2023.
China's stringent containment policies have slowed down domestic economic growth this year and spread to foreign nations through disruptions in supply chains.
The Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers' index revealed that industrial activity decreased in November for a fourth consecutive month, correlating with unfavourable statistics from an official survey released on Wednesday. Authorities are looking for people to question who were present at the demonstrations, even though the change in COVID's tone appears to be a response to public dissatisfaction with the agency's severe policies.
Between Saturday and Monday, at least 27 protests, according to the China Dissent Monitor, a project of Freedom House, which receives funding from the American government. According to sources , there were 51 protests in 24 cities.
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