China will end quarantine for travellers from January 8, as it ends strict 'zero-Covid' policy
27 December 2022, 14:25 | Updated: 27 December 2022, 14:37
Chinese officials have said the country will end quarantine for travellers from January 8, as the country exits its 'zero-Covid' policy.
The rule requires inbound travellers to quarantine for five days at a hotel and three days at home, and has already been reduced from previous requirements to be in quarantine for as long as three weeks.
The country's borders have been shut for almost three years, but will be opened up people with work and study visas, or who are looking to visit family.
However, when the restrictions have been lifted, people travelling to the country will still require a negative test 48 hours before departure, the health commission said.
The immigration authority also said Chinese citizens will also be able to travel abroad.
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Covid-19 infections have rocketed after restrictions were lifted there, with hospitals overwhelmed and elderly people dying, according to reports.
Officials have stopped releasing Covid data, so the true extent of daily cases and deaths is currently unknown.
Last week, China had reported around 4,000 new infections daily with few deaths.
On Sunday, Beijing said it would no longer be publishing case numbers at all.
However, British health data company Airfinity has estimated that the country was seeing over a million infections and 5,000 daily deaths.
China is the last of the world's major economies to adopt "living with Covid" following closed borders, three years of lockdown restrictions, and mandatory quarantine for Covid cases and their contacts.
Known as its 'zero-Covid' approach, the measures hit the economy hard, and left Chinese citizens weary of repeated tests and restrictions.
In late November there was unusual public protest as were rare widespread demonstrations took place against the policy in major cities, and the authorities dropped Covid curbs only a few weeks later.
