China Eases COVID-19 Restrictions, Lefts Flight Bans

China relaxed some of its hardline COVID-19 measures on Friday, cutting the quarantine period for inbound travellers from 10 days to eight as well as scrapping the closures of flight routes.

Furthermore, the National Health Commission pointed out that it was abolishing the requirement to identify and isolate "secondary close contacts."

The government stated that the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee held a meeting on Thursday to rubberstamp the limited relaxations, according to a notice published on state-run CCTV.

As per the statement, inbound arrivals will be required to undergo six nucleic acid tests and will not be allowed to freely set foot outside during those eight days.

Meanwhile, the travellers will only be required to show one negative COVID test within 48 hours of boarding flights to China, instead of two tests.

The new rules highlight "important business personnel" and "sports groups" as examples of privileged groups permitted to skip quarantine as long as they remain in a virus-secure "closed loop" for the duration of their stays.