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Goodbye ‘COVID Zero’
China eased COVID restrictions on Wednesday. Again.
Amid a rapid rollback of testing requirements across major cities and a relaxation of quarantine rules, officials in Beijing released a new 10-point plan to compliment 20 measures unveiled last month.
Going forward, the categorization of high-risk areas will be more precise and limited; the frequency and scale of mass testing will be reduced and minimized (negative tests will only be required for entry into places like hospitals, nursing home
We went to our haircutter today. It reminded me of something that makes me wary about the assumption that the Chinese economy will roar right back after the Zero Covid is shelved.
She is from Cambodia and usually would try to go visit family there every year or so. She had planned a trip just before the big Covid wave hit there so she cancelled. As she explained “Everything is closed. There is no point in going now.”
I asked if that was due to government regulations. She surprised me by answering “No, there are no regulations yet. Ut is because we have been through these a few times before. Bird flu and such. So no one goes out, restaurants close and everyone wears masks.”
That supports a story a couple months ago about a test of lifting Covid restrictions. The citizens there were too afraid of going out and contracting the virus so they sort of self-quarantined.
Perhaps Chinese people will not follow the example of MAGAland and crowd every venue. But we’ll find out, eh?