Teachers, students, medical experts and others have voiced anxieties over the looming downgrade of COVID-19's legal status this spring, fearing that the action will remove anti-infection measures that have become an entrenched part of daily lives and heighten infection risks.

Restaurants, shop operators, travel agencies and airlines welcomed Friday's decision to reclassify the coronavirus or called it overdue, after their revenues fell sharply under three years of COVID restrictions, including requests for people to stay indoors or for businesses to shorten operating hours.

"I am afraid we may no longer be able to protect the safety of children," one school teacher said.