Corona virus: China announces the end of the quarantine requirement upon entry

Most recently, travelers were isolated and closely monitored in a hotel room for at least five days. At times, an entry quarantine of 21 days was even mandatory. According to the commission, travelers will only have to present a negative corona test before departure to China. Further tests after arrival should be omitted. Gradually, the Chinese should also be allowed to do more international travel again. During the pandemic, the government had restricted travel opportunities abroad for its own countrymen.

End of the zero Covid policy came in early December China had on December 7th after almost three years Lockdowns, mass testing and other stringent measures have announced an abrupt end to its zero-Covid policy. The lifting of the entry quarantine is now a further relaxation. The about-face in corona policy was justified by the fact that infections with the new Omicron variants were no longer so difficult. But experts saw the reason above all in the fact that the strict measures could no longer be maintained in view of the explosive spread. The restrictions on the second-largest economy also increasingly weighed on it.

With the end of almost all measures, the virus is now spreading rapidly in China. According to officially unconfirmed internal estimates, 248 million people or 18 percent of the population were infected with Corona in the first three weeks of December alone. Hospitals are overcrowded and many crematoria can no longer cremate bodies fast enough. According to projections by experts, hundreds of thousands of deaths are to be expected.