The Chinese reacted this Tuesday, on social networks, with enthusiasm to the end of the restrictions that have kept the country isolated from the outside world since March 2020, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Authorities ended most anti-Covid-19 measures without warning on December 7, amid growing public exasperation and a major hit to the economy.
The last vestige of the “zero covid” policy, the mandatory quarantine for those arriving in the country from abroad, will be abolished from January 8, Beijing announced Monday night.
“It’s over… spring is coming,” reacted one enthusiastic user, in more applauded comments on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of the social network Twitter.
“Preparing for my trip abroad,” another user wrote, while a third commented: “I hope the return ticket price doesn’t go up again.”
Online searches for flights abroad skyrocketed as soon as the announcement was made public, according to state media.
The Tongcheng travel website saw an 850% increase in searches and a tenfold increase in visa applications.
For its part, the Trip.com agency reported that, half an hour after the announcement, the volume of searches for destinations outside mainland China increased tenfold over the previous year. Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea were among the most popular destinations.
The decision to abolish quarantines on arrival means an end to the rigid “covid zero” policy that for almost three years imposed widespread testing, lockdowns without notice and long mandatory quarantines in centers that rocked the world’s second largest economy.
“It’s a relief,” said Tom Simpson, director general of the Sino-British Chamber of Commerce. The move “ends three years of very significant disruption.”
However, Simpson predicted a “gradual recovery” as airlines slowly increase flights and adjust China strategies for 2023.
However, the announcement is “very, very welcome,” Simpson told AFP.
Starting next month, only a negative test of less than 48 hours will be required to enter China, the country’s Health Commission announced late Monday.
However, some restrictions remain in force, such as maintaining the suspension, to a large extent, of the issuance of tourist and foreign student visas.
However, with most health restrictions lifted, China is experiencing a Covid-19 outbreak.
The winter surge occurs just a few days before the New Year and a few weeks before the Lunar New Year in late January, when millions of people travel to visit family in what is known as the largest human migration.
On Sunday, China announced that it would stop publishing Covid-19 case figures, amid criticism that it was completely out of step with the current epidemic situation.
Hospitals and crematoriums across the country are overflowing with patients and victims of the disease, and Western studies have estimated that up to a million people could die in the coming months.
Big cities are now battling shortages of antipyretic drugs, while emergency medical facilities are experiencing an influx of unvaccinated elderly patients.
Beijing has insisted that the country is ready to ride the wave and that the public must take charge.
“We need the public to adequately protect themselves and continue to cooperate with adequate prevention and control measures” of the covid, said epidemiologist Liang Wannian, who advises health authorities, quoted by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.
Source: TSF
