After almost three years of closed borders, China is all set to end quarantine for travelers from January 8, 2023, and reopen the country for those with work and study visas, or planning to visit family.
A cap on the daily number of flights allowed into China would also be scrapped.
Lifting travel quarantine will ease overseas travel for Chinese citizens, the immigration authorities said on Tuesday. While the incoming travelers would no longer undergo quarantine, they would still need to take a PCR test.
COVID-19 has been dealt with as a top category A infectious disease in China since 2020. But now the National Health Commission announced that COVID would be formally downgraded to a Class B infectious disease starting the first week of January 2023.
The decision is China’s last step in scrapping three years of zero-COVID and acceptance to living with the virus. China is the last major economy that has moved to “living with Covid” after three years of zero-COVID policy including strict lockdowns, closed borders, and mandatory quarantine for travelers as well as COVID patients and contacts.
Public resentment
The zero-COVIS policy shook the Chinese economy, while restrictions and repeated tests irked the citizens. Resentment against the prolonged pandemic restrictions exploded into rare public protests against President Xi Jinping in November, following which the authorities started easing COVID-19 restrictions.
Closed borders were the last major restriction of the strict COVID policy. Since March 2020, travelers entering China had to undergo mandatory quarantine of up to three weeks at a state facility. The duration was recently reduced to five days. But now, incoming travelers would only need to take a PCR test.
Surge in COVID cases
China recently lifted COVID restrictions and the disease spread ferociously. Reports say hospitals are overwhelmed and elderly people are dying. Actual data on daily case counts and deaths is currently not available as the country has stopped sharing the pandemic data publicly.
Beijing had reported about 4,000 new COVID cases per day last week and few deaths before announcing it would stop publishing the numbers altogether. However, British health data firm Airfinity has claimed more than a million cases and 5,000 deaths per day in China.