Many cities in China have relaxed Covid-measures in the past week – even as the number of cases was still rising – as the authorities recognized that the Omicron variant was less dangerous compared to earlier variants. The authorities also announced a new campaign to vaccinate those over 80 years old. Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who has led China’s Covid-19 battle for the last three years, signaled a new chapter in the country’s pandemic response when she said the Omicron variant was more transmissible but less deadly.
In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and some other cities, passengers can now take the subway or public buses without having to show they recently took a PCR test. In some cities restaurants and other indoor spaces have reopened, but in most cases proof of a negative test result obtained within the past 48 hours is still required. Some cities only require people working in high-risk occupations or areas to be regularly tested. Beijing residents no longer need to register their personal information to purchase medicines for fever, coughs, sore throats or infections either online or in drugstores.
Some places do not require residents without social activities to participate in mass testing. It is a move to take more targeted, science-based actions to curb flare-ups, authorities explained. Several districts in Guangzhou have advised residents to take nucleic acid testing based on their needs. The elderly staying at home, students taking online classes, employees working from home and other people without community activities no longer need to take Covid tests if they don't go outside. This measure can help relieve the great pressure on daily testing and reduce the infection risk for those staying at home since queuing at testing spots may increase infection risk, Zhuang Shilihe, a Guangzhou-based medical expert said. In Chongqing, residents who live in communities without positive cases in the past five days don't need to participate in mass testing. China released a 20-point circular on further optimizing Covid-19 measures on November 11.
Authorities will accelerate the lifting of unnecessary restrictions put in place after the recent Omicron-fueled outbreaks to reduce economic fallout of the disease control strategies and other inconveniences”, National Health Commission Spokesman Mi Feng said. Local authorities must remove all needless restrictions as soon as possible to minimize the inconvenience caused to the public, he told a news conference in Beijing. He called for more efforts to avoid bureaucracy and over-simplicity in the implementation process at the grassroots level, and to respond to sensible public demands.
Cheng Youquan, an official with the National Disease Control Bureau, said the recent surge in public anger is mostly directed at local governments’ negligence in meeting the demands of the public in restricted areas, and the “one-size-fits-all” approach, rather than the control measures themselves. Special commissions have been established nationwide to tackle such wrongdoings, and are responding to problems posed by netizens, he added.
Chinese health officials once again called on the elderly to get vaccinated, reiterating the high risk of developing severe disease after infection. About 1.27 billion people in China have completed full vaccination, accounting for 90.28% of the total population, and more than 800 million have received booster shots. China last week rolled out a plan to speed up vaccinations of the elderly – especially those aged 80 and above. It requires localities to extensively survey senior populations and ramp up services and awareness campaigns. To accelerate vaccination, the required period between the primary vaccination and a booster has been reduced from six to three months.
Activity in China’s factory and services sectors both slowed further in November amid intensifying coronavirus-related disruptions. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 48 last month, down from 49.2 in October to the lowest point since April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The official non-manufacturing PMI, which measures business sentiment in the services and construction sectors, fell to 46.7 in November from 48.7 in October, also the lowest since April.
Major European airlines are scheduling more direct flights between Shanghai and Europe. Lufthansa German Airlines added one more weekly flight from Frankfurt to Shanghai beginning on December 5. It will operate three weekly flights between Shanghai and Frankfurt. Austrian Airlines, which is also part of the Lufthansa Group, operates one weekly flight between Shanghai and Vienna. Lufthansa Group currently operates 17 weekly flights between China and Europe, making it the biggest European carrier on China-Europe routes.
This overview is based on reports by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily, Global Times and South China Morning Post.
