Coronavirus: China bans unauthorised lockdowns to support ‘in difficulty’ services sector

National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) instructs all regional authorities to not impose any unauthorised citywide or district-wide lockdowns

It also urges local governments not to shut down or extend the closure of restaurants, supermarkets, scenic spots and cinemas without investigation or a policy basis

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During the week-long Lunar New Year holiday period earlier this month, China saw the country’s tourism revenue drop by 3.9 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 10:15pm, 18 Feb 2022Updated: 9:01am, 19 Feb 2022

Local governments in China have been banned from imposing unauthorised lockdown measures, in the latest attempt to fine-tune the country’s coronavirus policies and offer a boost to the “in difficulty” services sector.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) instructed all regional authorities to not impose any citywide or district-wide lockdowns that go beyond relevant coronavirus prevention and control measures issued by the central government or cut off public transport unnecessarily or without approval.

China’s top economic planner also urged local governments not to shut down or extend the closure of restaurants, supermarkets, scenic spots and cinemas without epidemiological investigation or a policy basis.

Concerns have been growing among experts about the rising cost of Beijing’s zero-Covid approach, while many economists have warned that the divergence in coronavirus-control strategies with Western countries could put China at a comparative disadvantage.

We will resolutely avoid both the tendencies of ‘loosening prevention and control’ and ‘excessive prevention and control’

NDRC

“We will resolutely avoid both the tendencies of ‘loosening prevention and control’ and ‘excessive prevention and control’,” the NDRC said.