According to the China National Health Commission, the following changes will be made to the country’s COVID-19 restrictions:
“According to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, isolation measures will no longer be implemented for people infected with the new crown virus , and close contacts will no longer be identified ; high and low risk areas will no longer be demarcated; patients infected with the new crown virus will be treated in different grades and medical insurance policies will be adjusted in a timely manner; testing strategies Adjusted to “willing to do all inspections”; adjust the frequency and content of epidemic information releases. According to the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, no quarantine and infectious disease management measures will be taken for entry personnel and goods.”
These changes will take affect on January 8th, 2023. The document also outlines the rationale behind the changes:
“From the perspective of virus mutation, experts at home and abroad generally believe that the general direction of virus mutation is lower pathogenicity, more prone to upper respiratory tract infection, and shorter incubation period. The new coronavirus will exist in nature for a long time, and its pathogenicity has decreased significantly compared to the early stage. The resulting disease will gradually evolve into a common respiratory infectious disease.”
The document takes careful note to praise the conduct of Chinese authorities over the course of the pandemic, pupating that China has had the least amount of deaths and infections of any nation in the world.
This dramatic pivot in policy comes as Chinese authorities are still implementing rolling quarantines in major Chinese cities. It is not clear how this policy demotion will impact those practices that have resulted in widespread protests since the deaths of 10 people in an apartment fire in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region on November 26th, 2022. However, it is clear the Politburo is taking actions to protect national harmony in the face of the “White Paper Revolution.”
