Investors and businesses may be welcoming China’s surprise pivot from years of COVID-era lockdowns, mass testing and isolation, but one of the country’s top medical advisors is warning it’ll come with a cost: a massive wave of COVID case that will occur as containment measures are lifted.
On Wednesday, Beijing announced sweeping changes to its COVID restrictions. Mild and asymptomatic cases would be allowed to isolate at home, rather than be sent to government isolation facilities. Officials would no longer require PCR tests and the ubiquitous health code app to enter public venues or travel between Chinese cities. Lockdowns would be limited to individual floors or buildings, rather than entire districts.
