Check Credit Score
Check Credit Score
HomeNewsWorld

China eases Covid restrictions in major shift in virus policy

The 10 new measures include accelerating vaccination among the elderly and forbidding local officials to designate large areas, like entire housing compounds, as high-risk.

December 07, 2022 / 11:40 AM IST
Representative Image  (Image: Reuters)

Representative Image (Image: Reuters)

China eased a range of Covid restrictions Wednesday, including allowing some people to quarantine at home rather than in centralized camps and scrapping test requirements to enter most public venues, in a sharp change in national strategy to quell public discontent and fire up the economy again.

The 10 new measures include accelerating vaccination among the elderly and forbidding local officials to designate large areas, like entire housing compounds, as high-risk.

Bloomberg News reported earlier that changes were imminent.

The new list of 10 adds to a first round of easing a month ago in the form of 20 measures to refine Covid control, and the pace at which the relaxations are being rolled out reflect the mounting pressure on President Xi Jinping to chart a path out of the crisis.

Covid Zero, which includes widespread testing and sweeping lockdowns, has been championed by the government throughout the pandemic, but it has left China isolated and caused widespread misery and economic hardship.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

View more
How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

View more
Show

Expectations of a loosening of China’s rigid Covid regime spurred the strongest monthly rally in Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks in nearly two decades in November. Shares of the country’s three main airlines — Air China Ltd., China Eastern Airlines Corp. and China Southern Airlines Co. — all surged more than 10% in Hong Kong on Wednesday after the news.

The switch to home isolation was first pioneered in Beijing after quarantine facilities ran out of space when infections surged. Rapidly expanding the rule nationwide marks a major shift in China’s approach and could shift public perception of the virus from a serious health threat to a more commonplace illness, potentially paving the way for the country to rejoin the rest of the world in living with Covid.

State propaganda had painted Covid as fearsome and Western countries’ acceptance of it as a moral failing. But as other places moved past the pandemic, a growing number of people started questioning why they were stuck with China’s approach, raising pressure on the authorities. Protests eventually spilled into streets in cities around the country, with some demonstrators calling for Xi to step down — incredibly rare scenes of public unrest in the world’s most populous nation.

Bloomberg
first published: Dec 7, 2022 11:40 am

Discover the latest business news, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!

Advisory Alert: It has come to our attention that certain individuals are representing themselves as affiliates of Moneycontrol and soliciting funds on the false promise of assured returns on their investments. We wish to reiterate that Moneycontrol does not solicit funds from investors and neither does it promise any assured returns. In case you are approached by anyone making such claims, please write to us at grievanceofficer@nw18.com or call on 02268882347