China eases quarantine rules, scraps inbound air travel curbs even though Covid cases spike

China has reduced the quarantine time for inbound air travellers and scrapped a major restriction on international flights, as the country seeks to dialdown on its draconian zero-Covid policy.

The new decision was taken by the Standing Committee of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) headed by Xi Jinping on Thursday.

Under the new measures, the authorities have scrapped so-called “circuit breaker” mechanism, in which flights were suspended if an airline was found to carry a certain number of passengers who tested positive for Covid upon landing.

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The circuit-breaker mechanism was seen as a major impediment by the aviation industry, as it has resulted in huge losses for air operators while flying to China.

Moreover, the authorities have also reduced the pre-departure testing time from two days to one day, and the mandatory quarantine upon arrival has been cut from seven days to five days, followed by another three days of home isolation.

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Presently, the travellers are quarantined for 10 days in total, with a week in a hotel and three days at home.

The government has also eased up in terms of identifying close contacts of COVID-19 cases.

Under the new rules, the close contacts of Covid infected patients will have a shortened quarantine at government-operated facilities.

Now, they would have to stay only for five days at the government-operated place and three days at home. Earlier it was seven days at the facility and three days at home.

Moreover, government health officials will no longer report secondary close contacts in any circumstances.

The move to ease Covid restriction comes even as the country has registered a spurt in Covid cases. On Thursday, China recorded the highest single-day spike since April, detecting over 10,200 Covid infections.

Guangzhou topped the list with 225 new infections, followed by Beijing with 114 cases.

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