When China announced on Monday the removal of the mandatory Covid quarantine for overseas arrivals, people flocked to travel websites the next day. The country has been cut off from the rest of the world for three years due to COVID restrictions. This comes at a time when the zero covid policy has been lifted and infections are rising rapidly in the country.
China made a snap decision on Monday, saying that from January 8, incoming travelers will no longer be required to quarantine upon arrival. Just last month, people held mass protests against President Xi Jinping and strict covid measures, after which he relaxed his covid policy.
Now, cases have risen across the country, and authorities say the outbreak is “impossible” to trace and have therefore scrapped much-maligned official case counts. According to official statistics, China showed only one death from COVID in the last seven days up to Monday. Experts fear that the government data is incorrect and inconsistent with the experience of much less populous countries after they reopened.
Hospitals are overwhelmed with five or six times more patients than usual, say doctors, most of them elderly. International health experts estimate millions of daily infections and predict at least one million COVID deaths in China next year.
However, despite the fact that COVID is spreading across the country, people are delighted with the lifting of the sidewalks. According to data from travel platform Ctrip, half an hour after the news broke, searches for popular international destinations increased 10-fold. Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea were the most searched for, Ctrip said.
Data from another platform, Qunar, showed that within 15 minutes of breaking the news, searches for international flights increased sevenfold, with Thailand, Japan and South Korea topping the list.
Meanwhile, China is also downgrading its management of the virus to the less stringent Category B from the current higher-level Category A from January 8, the health authority said, as it has become less virulent. The change means authorities will no longer be forced to quarantine patients and their close contacts and lock down regions.
(With contributions from agencies)
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