China reduced the amount of time travelers and close contacts must spend in quarantine, and pulled back on testing, in a significant recalibration of the "COVID zero" policy that has isolated the world’s second-largest economy and raised public ire.
Travelers into China will be required to spend five days in a hotel or government quarantine facility, followed by three days confined to home, according to a National Health Commission statement Friday. The current rules require 10 days quarantine in total, with a week in a hotel then three days at home.
The same shortened quarantine length will now also be applied to close contacts of infected people, minimizing the disruptive practice of contact-tracing that has seen millions thrown into centralized facilities when officials race to stamp out spread. Close contacts of close contacts will now no longer be identified, added the statement.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.