Coronavirus: Beijing eases travel limits after five days of no new cases
- People from ‘low-risk’ areas can enter and leave the city without a swab test
- Covid-19 emergency response level might also be lowered, allowing gyms and other indoor venues to be opened
Beijing municipal government spokesman Xu Hejian said on Saturday that people could enter and leave the capital freely without being tested for the coronavirus if they were from “low-risk” areas.
All of the country’s medium and high-risk areas are in Beijing, so the easing means that people from outside Beijing can freely enter the capital without swab tests.
Just over a week ago, authorities announced that residents from “low-risk” areas in Beijing could leave the city without having to provide results of a coronavirus test. But strict controls remained on people from medium and high-risk areas.
There is one high-risk area and 12 medium-risk areas in the country, all of them in Beijing.
01:39
New coronavirus outbreak at Beijing food market fuels fears of second wave of cases in China
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said some risk and emergency response levels might also be lowered in the next seven to 10 days.