China ends coronavirus quarantine on international arrivals from January 8 | world News

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China will lift the requirement for international travelers to quarantine from January 8 in the latest departure from its policy not to spread the coronavirus after the protests.

The rule, which required arrivals to self-quarantine for five days in a hotel and three days at home, has already been scaled back from previous requirements to be quarantined for up to three weeks.

When the requirement is lifted next month, the health commission said, travelers to China will still need a negative COVID-19 test 48 hours before departure.

The government has dramatically reversed its restrictive COVID-19 lockdown policies in recent weeks after an extraordinary public outcry in late November.

The change was made as part of a broader reduction in the risks posed by the virus in the country as the economy weakens and the Chinese public grows weary of strict lockdowns.

As a result of the decline, officials estimated that 250 million people likely contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December, leaked notes showed.

Last week, Shanghai, China’s largest city, recorded 5.43 million cases of infection among its population of 25 million.

Millions could die due to the relatively low number of fully vaccinated people in the country.

But the true number of positive cases may not be revealed, as Chinese officials are no longer recording asymptomatic cases.

The world’s second largest economy has been virtually cut off from the world for three years. An effective ban on international tourism has been in place since early 2020.

The latest policy shift paves the way for an even bigger economic recovery, once the wave of infections passes.

Li Keqiang, China’s premier and the second most powerful person in the country, has publicly acknowledged the financial damage wrought by the pandemic and said easing strict lockdown rules will help the economy “recover”.

China has vowed to improve the economy next year, after growth slowed due to a prolonged lockdown, and economists have reported seeing signs to focus on boosting gross domestic product, a measure of economic activity.

Retail sales fell nearly 6% in the year through November, worse than analysts expected. The economy is on track to miss its annual growth target of 5.5%, which is already the lowest in decades.

China has managed to avoid the waves of infection that nearly every country in the world has experienced through its aggressive lockdown programme.

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