China eases COVID-19 restrictions on inbound travelers

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – China on Friday eased COVID-19 restrictions on inbound travelers, shortening the monitoring period and reducing the number of tests required.

The country's health authorities said the quarantine requirements for international arrivals who are close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases are shortened by two days, from “7+3 to 5+3,” officials said.

Earlier, anyone who had come into contact with a coronavirus-positive case had to spend seven days in a centralized isolation center, followed by three days of home monitoring.

The fresh guidelines now only require a single negative nucleic acid test taken within 48 hours for an international traveler before flying into China.

While the authorities have stated that they will continue to promote mass vaccination, they have removed the "circuit breaker" from overseas inbound flights to China after positive cases were detected on board.

The latest development comes after the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee discussed a report on the COVID-19 response on Thursday.

President Xi Jinping presided over the meeting, which noted that new variants continue to emerge in the country as new outbreaks remain in China.

“China is a populous country with large vulnerable population groups, unbalanced regional development, and insufficient medical resources. The outbreaks in some parts of China are of a considerable scale,” according to meeting notes.

China has seen a big jump in new coronavirus cases in recent days.

Separately, the National Health Commission reported 1,209 new cases across the country on Thursday, 1,150 of which were locally transmitted.

China has reported 268,753 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 5,226 deaths, since the first cases were reported in Wuhan city in December 2019.