Is the end to China’s strict zero-Covid rules in sight? Internet users hope so

Name: Residents in China argue with guard to leave apartment blocks during deadly earthquake
Uploaded: 2022-09-15T11:00:04.000Z
Duration: 1 min 30 s
Description: Residents in China argue with guard to leave apartment blocks during deadly earthquake

Announcements from the UN and WHO raise hopes but there is no official sign of light at the end of the tunnel

However, authorities have been quick to quash talk that the restrictions will become enshrined as state policy

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In line with the country’s zero-Covid policy, hundreds students at Communication University of China in Beijing have been sent to a quarantine centre after a handful of Covid-19 cases were detected in their dormitory. Photo: AP

Echo Xie

Published: 7:00pm, 15 Sep 2022

Hopes that the Covid-19 pandemic could be over soon have risen online in China with a UN agency’s assessment that the end is “in sight” but there is no sign in the country that strict controls will be abandoned.

Nevertheless, Chinese state media have denied suggestions that the country’s “dynamic zero-Covid” approach will become permanent government policy.

Expectations of a potential end to restrictions in China were raised on Wednesday when the United Nations posted a message on its WeChat account that next week’s UN General Assembly session would include a meeting to discuss “ending the Covid-19 pandemic”.

The meeting refers to a World Health Organization gathering next week on ending the pandemic through equitable access to vaccines, tests and treatments – but not about whether to announce the end of the pandemic.

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Residents in China argue with guard to leave apartment blocks during deadly earthquake

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus went one stop further though, saying the end of the pandemic was “in sight”.

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