The Chinese government announced Friday a timid relaxation of restrictions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, including shorter quarantines and the elimination of penalties for airlines transporting people infected with the coronavirus to the Asian giant, which will avoid flight bans.
The authorities have made public a new 20-point protocol which implies that those who travel to China will have to isolate themselves in specific hotels for five days instead of the current seven, although it will be extended to eight in the case of those who cannot isolate themselves for three more days in a private home. To leave the country, it will be sufficient to present one negative test instead of two.
In the case of contacts with positive cases, the isolation protocol will be reduced from ten to eight days: five days of strict quarantine and three days of observation, according to official Chinese media.
China maintains one of the most restrictive pandemic policies in the world, with the aim of reducing the number of cases to zero at the cost of introducing indiscriminate measures. Some four million people are currently affected by confinement.
Despite this control, the Ministry of Health has reported in recent days the highest levels of infection in six months, with 10,500 new positives reported on Friday alone. According to the newspaper ‘Global Times’, the mere announcement of the relaxation of the protocols has already triggered flight searches to levels unheard of in the last year.
