A much-needed breather from China has come after nearly three years but one is not sure whether that would cause any positive impact at this moment. China has announced that any inbound travellers no longer need to go into quarantine from the 8th of January.
This update from the National Health Commission is being seen as a major concession towards easing curbs on its international borders, which has been largely closed since 2020. China's official management of COVID-19 category is also being downgraded to Category B, which is less strict compared to its current top-level Category A. The official explanation is that the covid infection has become less virulent and may eventually evolve into a common respiratory infection.
Following three years of zero-tolerance strategies right from shuttered borders to massive lockdowns, China's economy has taken a beating and also led to the biggest show ever in the country of public protests against President Xi Jinping after he came to power in 2012. Following the rare protests, China took a sudden policy U-turn, recently halting all of its domestic COVID curbs. This has resulted in hospitals all over the country struggling to control a nationwide wave of new infections.
