China Considers Cutting Quarantine to Three Days On CDC Advise

What could be a first step in the re-opening of China global tourism, China is mulling whether to further shorten the quarantine period and impose more precise anti-epidemic restrictions, as part of its efforts to optimize the COVID-19 response, health authorities said on Thursday amid Omicron BA.5 subvariant-dominated outbreaks in at least 20 Chinese provinces and regions.

Travel industry leaders in China see this as an important first step in the rebirth of Chinese tourism as a mitigated quarantine of only three days will be largely acceptable to business and higher end FIT travelers. This will spur outbound Chinese travel very quickly.

 "We will continue to collect and study new problems and difficulties that locals are facing in dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks in following the ninth COVID-19 prevention playbook, such as whether the quarantine period can be further shortened and low-risk areas can be more precisely classified… so as to further update and improve the anti-epidemic measures to minimize the impact of the epidemic prevention and control measures on China's economic and social development and people's lives," Wang Liping, a research fellow at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), said during a Thursday press briefing.

Commenting on these fresh actions, virologist Jin Dongyan from Hong Kong University told the Global Times on Thursday that "it's good to see China's dynamic zero-COVID policy has always been dynamically adjusted as the epidemic situation changes. It is definitely more science-based." 

A Beijing-based health expert told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that "the possible adjustment indicates the flexibility of China's anti-epidemic policy. Shortening quarantine period doesn't mean the country is ready to relax its anti-epidemic determination, but is making its anti-epidemic measures more precise."

The expert said that the government will continue rectifying some local governments' "one-size-fits-all" measures that have led to "adding additional barriers to anti-virus policies," to make sure the science-based measures are well implemented across the country and better balanced among anti-virus measures and maintaining people's lives, as well as economic growth.

The CDC also told the Global Times that if the vaccination rate in China, especially among vulnerable groups such as the elderly, can be raised further, the country's anti-epidemic measures can be better optimized, as the subvariants reported in this round of outbreaks in China have a strong capacity to escape an immune response. 

Chinese academician Zhang Boli said that the severe disease rate during this round of the epidemic caused by BA.5 is very low - about one out of nearly 2,000 - which could be explained by the enhanced herd immunity following mass vaccination.   

 Virologist Jin Dongyan from Hong Kong University noted – “shortening the quarantine period for people entering China will not increase the risk of the spread of the disease”.

 From Shanghai – be safe, be smart and be optimistic!

 Alexander Glos