New Delhi

The Chinese government has decided to drop the need for people living in Beijing to show negative COVID-19 tests in order to enter supermarkets and offices. The decision was taken in the aftermath of massive protests all around the country due to the latest set of lockdowns and restrictions.

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The government-owned newspaper China Daily carried the headline “Beijing readies itself for life again” with the report listing the reliefs that were provided to the citizens. The newspaper also reported that people in the Chinese capital were “gradually embracing” the normalcy.

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Apart of the supermarkets and offices, the need to show Covid reports were also dropped for some public transports. The subways started using the access cards once again and these were the biggest concessions made by the Communist Party of China in recent times as infections started to go up.

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Reports also suggested that China can announce 10 new nationwide reliefs from the COVID-19 restrictions. According to Reuters, the protests around the country came as a shock for the government and the relaxation of rules is also expected to provide a boost to the Chinese economy.

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“The most difficult period has passed,” the official Xinhua news agency.

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According to official data, over 90 per cent of China has been completely vaccinated and Tong Zhaohui, the director of the Beijing Institute of Respiratory Diseases, also told reporters on Monday that the latest strain of the Omicron variant has caused lesser cases than the 2009 influenza outbreak.

(With inputs from agencies)