China has eased coronavirus quarantine requirements for close contacts and international travellers, in the first marginal relaxation of Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid strategy since the policy was reaffirmed at the Communist party congress last month.
The State Council, China’s cabinet, pared the mandatory quarantine for close contacts of positive Covid-19 cases and overseas arrivals from seven days to five, while maintaining three further days of home isolation.
In practice, both quarantine procedures, which are carried out in centralised government facilities, have often been enforced for longer than the mandated periods. The latest changes also included ending the tracing of second-degree close contacts of confirmed positive cases.