BREAKING: China Shortens Quarantine to 7+3 for ALL Cities
• China's State Council has released guidelines that will reduce quarantine and at-home monitoring times for Covid across the board, as well as changes for risk area definitions, according to a report from CCTV News.
• Anyone travelling to China will have to take one PCR test before they board the flight, instead of two PCR tests and a RAT
• Other measures include cutting quarantine time to seven days in a government-run facility, plus another three in home isolation.
• This is a developing story, more details to follow. For the official Chinese source, click here.
China has been sending signals that border controls could gradually be eased. Photo: Bloomberg
The biggest changes since closing its borders
China on Tuesday announced changes to its pandemic control policy that will make it easier to enter the country, including requiring fewer Covid-19 tests to be taken beforehand. Other measures include cutting quarantine time for overseas arrivals to seven days at a government-run facility, followed by another three days in home isolation.
They mark the biggest changes to the rules since China closed its borders in March 2020, but the controls remain tough compared to many countries that have completely reopened and dropped testing requirements.
The bar for a negative test result has also been lowered. The “cycle threshold”, or Ct, value on PCR tests will be 35 – the number used by most countries – instead of 40. The Ct value indicates how hard it is for the test to detect the virus, so a lower threshold means a negative result is more likely. China temporarily lowered the Ct value to 35 during the Beijing Winter Olympics for athletes entering the country. The move is also in line with the latest Covid-19 treatment guidelines, which state that a patient is no longer considered infectious when a test shows a Ct value of 35 or above, and can be released from hospital or isolation.
Signals that border controls could gradually be eased?
Some of the rules announced on Tuesday have already been in place since earlier this month in the capital Beijing, Wuhan in the central province of Hubei, and in the east – Wuxi and Xuzhou in Jiangsu province and across Zhejiang. In addition, eight major cities in April cut their quarantine requirements from 14 to 10 days in a designated facility, a move that was followed in many other places.
While Beijing continues to insist on a tough “dynamic zero-Covid” policy, it has been sending signals that border controls could gradually be eased, as other countries are removing barriers for international travel 2½ years into the pandemic.
As of June 20, foreign nationals have been allowed to visit immediate Chinese family members or foreigners with permanent residency, and they no longer have to produce an invitation letter from a provincial-level authority when seeking an employment visa.
Aviation authorities also said earlier this month that the number of international passenger flights would increase and that they were in talks with several countries to add more. Several airlines in China have said they plan to offer new international routes or resume them from this month.
Sources: 北京日报, 人民日报
https://wap.peopleapp.com/article/6774423/6644560
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