Coronavirus in China: new guidelines support shift to living with Covid-19
- Thursday’s measures advise people on home isolation, monitoring and treating symptoms with medication
- Guidelines build on new 10-point plan intended to ease impact of long-standing control measures
Under the new “Guidelines on Home Isolation”, people with mild cases or asymptomatic infections are advised to monitor their health at home and contact hospitals for treatment only if they develop more serious symptoms.
“We take these fine-tuned measures, such as home isolation and disease monitoring, not because we’re completely opened up, but to more accurately assist those who need help, conserve medical resources for more serious cases and prevent the disease from further spreading,” Wang Guiqiang, an infectious disease expert from Peking University First Hospital, said at a press conference on Thursday.
He stressed that the public should continue to take precautions even after measures are relaxed, to protect themselves and their families.
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China further eases pandemic restrictions in latest step towards reopening after zero-Covid
The new guidelines come after China on Wednesday announced another major policy shift to relax Covid-19 control measures – a 10-point plan that includes dropping mass testing, health codes and centralised quarantine requirements for most cases.