“Zero Covid” in China: effective easing
In Beijing, this Saturday, December 3, many mobile anti-Covid screening centers were closed, negative tests no longer being necessary to go to certain stores such as supermarkets and, from Monday, to take the metro. A negative test is still required to go to the office.
The city of Shenzhen has announced that it will no longer require testing for people accessing transport or parks, despite the fact that the number of cases is near its highest level since the start of the pandemic. Shenzhen thus follows the example of Chengdu, or even Tianjin.
Without officially renouncing it, the authorities have started to relax the “zero Covid” policy in recent weeks after recent demonstrations. The security forces were still very visible this Saturday in certain districts of the capital and in Shanghai, to prevent any new demonstration.
The government should announce, according to Reuters, new measures to relax the testing policy, and allow positive people and contact cases to isolate themselves at home under conditions. European officials said after an interview with Xi Jinping on Thursday that he had told them that the Omicron variant, now the majority in China, allowed such a relaxation.
RFI