Relaxed COVID prevention rules announced in cities
People walk on a street in Haizhu District, Guangzhou City in south China's Guangdong Province, on November 30.
Multiple places in China relaxed COVID-19 restrictions as the country optimized its prevention policies, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Panyu and Liwan districts in Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong Province and one of the epicenters of the recent COVID-19 outbreak, lifted all lockdowns, while other districts imposed lockdowns in high-risk areas only, the Guangzhou government said yesterday.
High risk will be designated to living and working areas with frequent activity of people infected with COVID-19, and it will be limited to buildings and cannot be expanded arbitrarily, said Zhang Yi, a deputy director of the Guangzhou Health Commission, in a press conference.
Kunming, a city in southwest China's Yunnan Province, made similar moves.
Normal life and work will gradually resume in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, as the city implements a region-specific, multi-level targeted approach to pandemic prevention and control, starting from December 1.
Restrictions will be slowly phased out in Liangping District and the central urban area of Chongqing, said the local government in a press conference yesterday.
The rules on PCR screening will be further optimized in Beijing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Shenzhen, among other cities, highlighting that mass testing will not be conducted citywide or district-wide in general and only target key persons with high risk.
From Wednesday, Beijing residents who do not engage in social activities are no longer required to participate in community nucleic acid screenings if they do not need to leave their homes, according to local authorities.
This includes groups such as homebound seniors, children and people working or studying from home, said Xu Hejian, a spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government, at a press conference on Wednesday.
In terms of quarantine for close contacts of the infected, self-isolation at home is allowed if they meet certain criteria, said the governments of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chongqing.
