Coronavirus: China’s eased zero-Covid rules put to the test as cases spike
- Under newly relaxed rules, regional authorities have been told to stop local outbreaks while addressing ‘public demands’
- Major outbreak ‘highly possible’ in China, disease expert says
On Wednesday, the country reported 20,059 new local infections, including 18,491 asymptomatic cases, up from 17,772 a day earlier. China reported about 1,000 local infections daily at the end of last month.
In Beijing, Peking University locked down the entire campus after finding one Covid-19 case. Faculty, staff and students were not allowed to leave the grounds and classes were moved online. The campus will conduct testing three times a day until Friday.
The spike in cases put China’s overhauled Covid-19 control measures to the test as the central government shifted to a more targeted strategy.
On Friday, the State Council announced 20 changes to its Covid-19 restrictions, including reduced quarantine times, and elimination of the need to identify medium-risk areas and secondary close contacts. Lockdowns and citywide mass testing measures were also relaxed.
Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, said the new flare-ups had nothing to do with the eased measures, saying it was only a matter of time before a large-scale outbreak occurred in China.