Enlarge image
Chinese anti-plague workers at a corona testing station (photo from November 28)
Photo: THOMAS PETER / REUTERS
Nationwide, thousands had recently protested against their government’s restrictive “zero Covid policy”.
Now the country's leadership may make slight concessions.
China's Vice Prime Minister Sun Chunlan said on Wednesday, according to the state news agency Xinhua, that the pandemic was in a "new stage".
"As the omicron variant has become less pathogenic, more people are vaccinated, and we have gained more experience in Covid prevention, our fight against the pandemic is at a new stage and entails new tasks," Sun said a meeting of the National Health Commission.
According to the Reuters news agency, Sun also announced a “human approach” to fighting the pandemic.
Sun made no direct reference to the “zero Covid policy” pursued by President Xi Jinping.
The rigorous measures had recently led to the largest public protests in China in decades.
In response to the rallies, a massive police presence was mobilized on the streets of Beijing, Shanghai and other cities to prevent the demonstrations from flaring up again.
Even before the protests broke out, the authorities had decided to adjust the corona measures.
However, since the number of infections has recently risen sharply, many cities have imposed additional measures.
The Health Commission asked the local authorities to strictly adhere to the guidelines.
Relaxation in cities with millions of inhabitants
According to Reuters, some cities have already eased restrictions.
In the provincial capital of Guangzhou, where there had recently been protests, contact persons of corona infected people are now allowed to isolate themselves at home.
According to local authorities, this also applies to other cities in Guangdong province.
According to Reuters, corona tests have been suspended for the time being in the city of Ordos in the north of the country – officially because of the extremely cold weather.
According to the British “Guardian”, corona measures have also been relaxed in the city of Zhengzhou.
There had recently been massive protests by employees of a factory that supplies the US company Apple.
Government backs vaccination campaign
On Tuesday, the commission also announced that it intends to push ahead with the vaccination campaign, especially among the elderly.
For fear of side effects, older people in the country of 1.4 billion people have so far been vaccinated less.
Only 40 percent of people over the age of 80 have received a booster shot.
The number of reported new corona infections meanwhile fell slightly for the third day in a row.
As the Health Commission reported on Thursday, around 35,800 new cases were reported the previous day.
On Tuesday there were around 37,600 infections.
Only recently, the number of more than 40,000 new infections per day reached a high since the pandemic began almost three years ago.
fek/dpa/Reuters