Funeral homes across China's COVID-hit capital Beijing, a city of 22 million, scrambled on Saturday to keep up with calls for funeral and cremation services as workers and drivers testing positive for the coronavirus called in sick.
After declaring that the omicron strain has weakened, and unprecedented public protests against a "zero-COVID" policy championed by President Xi Jinping, China abruptly shifted its coronavirus management protocols more than a week ago.
Moving away from endless testing, lockdowns and heavy travel restrictions, China is realigning with a world that has largely reopened to live with COVID.