Even when the country is grappling with a sudden spurt in coronavirus infections fuelled by the Omicron variants, China has announced that it will scrap quarantine for international travellers from January 8 next year.
Apart from this, the following are the other announcements by China:
It will reopen its international borders and come out of international isolation after nearly three years
China is also poised to downgrade COVID-19 from Class A to B management
After the announcements, the officials argue that Omicron variants were not as lethal as the Delta strain, which caused massive casualties all over the world.
Earlier this month, Xi Jinping's regime relaxed its stringent zero-Covid policy following a wave of anti-government protests.
What was the protocol earlier?
Earlier, the passengers coming from abroad had to mandatorily stay in over two weeks of quarantine in government accommodations, which was gradually reduced to five days with three days' of observation.
COVID-19 has been managed as a top category 'A' infectious disease since 2020, putting it at par with bubonic plague and cholera.
Under Chinese laws, authorities must impose the toughest restrictions such as quarantine and isolation of the infected and their close contacts, and lockdowns to contain those diseases.
At the border, the infected must be isolated and those who might be infected quarantined, depending on the incubation period.
The National Health Commission also stopped announcing daily Covid cases on Sunday.
The novel coronavirus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 before it turned into a pandemic.
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
