China unveils 10 new rules to speed up COVID-zero easing

Chinese authorities announced another wave of loosening COVID-zero restrictions, as the country continues to emerge from its long-held pandemic policy that has weighed down its economy and kept residents in and out of lockdowns over the past three years.

The new 10-point measures by China’s National Health Commission (NHC) released today (in Chinese, readout in English, or see full English translations of the rules from Pekingnology and Bloomberg) follow an ease in controls by several Chinese cities over the weekend, and build off the 20 guidelines (in Chinese, readout in English) rolled out less than a month ago on November 11, most notably:

• COVID patients with mild or no symptoms, as well as close contacts, will be allowed to quarantine at home instead of being sent to centralized government facilities.
• Mandatory requirements for PCR testing and health QR codes have all but been removed in some public places.

The unprecedented pace at which China is rolling back restrictions comes after state media and top officials recently signaled a shift to a “new phase” in the pandemic, after nation-wide protests against COVID zero that rippled out across the world.

• On Monday, state-run news agency Xinhua said (in Chinese): “The most difficult period has passed. Now the pathogenicity of the Omicron variant is weakening, and our ability to respond has increased, which has laid a foundation and provided conditions for the continuous optimization and improvement of prevention and control measures.”
• Vice Premier and COVID-zero czar Sūn Chūnlán 孙春兰 last week publicly acknowledged the weakening pathogenicity of Omicron, while emphasizing that health authorities “face a new situation and new tasks.”
• State-backed media outlets and other influential figures have also started stressing the less-severe nature of the Omicron variant, and the small pool of evidence for “long COVID.”

But a lift in COVID-zero restrictions has also stoked concern over a surge in cases that could disrupt businesses and harm China’s most vulnerable, as Beijing seeks to boost vaccination rates among the elderly, and as its healthcare system braces for an onslaught of cases among a population in which many have never yet contracted COVID.

• “If a large number of people who guarantee the normal operation of society and basic medical services are infected in a short period of time, it will cause a shortage of workforce, which may bring disruptions to the operation of society and basic medical services,” said an official Q&A today, per the Pekingnology translation.