Experts have expressed widespread shock at the speed with which China appears to have shelved its controversial COVID-zero policy, according to a report by Bloomberg, with the country’s new COVID policy described as “let it rip”.
Just weeks after protests rocked the mainland in response to the harsh lockdowns being imposed amid rising COVID cases, Beijing has significantly wound back its COVID-zero response with most internal restrictions removed and many testing facilities dismantled.
It was also reported Wednesday that health officials will no longer report on asymptomatic case numbers with the National Health Commission stating, “It is impossible to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infections.”
While there have long been calls for China to ease its COVID-zero policies, the speed in which they have done so and resulting surge in cases and hospitalizations in major centers like Beijing has taken many by surprise.
“Logic doesn’t seem to apply here,” said Bloomberg Intelligence’s chief pharmaceutical analyst Sam Fazeli, adding that China’s attitude now appears to be, “there’s not so much we can do, we’ve done the best we can. We’ve got the blueprint for what the West did and what happened, so let’s just let it rip – which is what I think is going on.”
Steven Lynch, Managing Director of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, tells Bloomberg, “I wasn’t expecting China’s exit strategy to be so rapid. I thought it would be a gradual process. But again, you know, this speaks to the outpouring of anger and anxiety that people have had around COVID-zero.”
“China doesn’t usually make such abrupt about turns,” adds Richard McGregor, senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. “They usually stress test new policies in local experiments before rolling them out nationally.
“The government now seems to have finally been convinced that the old approach was leading to disaster. The protests were important but I think the pivotal issue is the tanking economy.”
According to Bloomberg Economics chief Asia economist Chang Shu, China is now on track to be free of all COVID restrictions by the end of March.
China’s actions have been largely mirrored by Macau, which over the past week has allowed positive cases to isolate at home and removed a requirement to scan into venues before entering. However, border restrictions between Macau and Zhuhai are yet to ease with all arrivals into Macau from the mainland still required to obtain a negative test result within 24 hours.
