What’s new: The southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou said Wednesday that it would allow close contacts of Covid cases who meet certain conditions to undergo quarantine in their own homes, in an effort to “optimize” local anti-epidemic measures.
Zhang Yi, deputy director of the city’s health commission, announced the change at a press conference today. Zhang did not elaborate on the conditions, but said that in principle, close contacts would still be subject to centralized quarantine.
The capital of Guangdong province is among worst-hit cities in China’s latest outbreak, reporting nearly 7,000 local cases Tuesday.
What’s more: Guangzhou is also one of several cities that have recently adopted “precise” Covid testing policies, exempting home-bound residents or those living in areas where no new cases have been reported in the past five days from mass testing. Other cities include Beijing and Zhengzhou and Chongqing, all of which are grappling with a surge in cases.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Beijing’s districts of Chaoyang, Daxing, Tongzhou and Shijingshan issued notices allowing home-bound seniors, students taking classes online, people working from home, and others who do not need to leave their residences to be exempt from daily testing.
The moves were made to reduce the risk of people getting infected in crowded places and save resources, the districts said.
The adjustments come at a time when more and more Chinese people are tiring of mandatory testing, which has been a cornerstone of China’s strategy to deal with the virus since the early days of the pandemic.
Earlier this month, the country issued 20 new guidelines aimed at “optimizing” its Covid response, which discouraged unnecessary and arbitrary mass testing.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com)
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