China eases quarantine and flight bans in Covid-19 Zero pivot

A man wearing a face mask and motorists pass by metal barriers set up around the shuttered shop houses that were locked down as part of COVID-19 controls in Beijing on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. China's capital Beijing has closed city parks and imposed other restrictions as the country faces a new wave of COVID-19 cases. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

BEIJING, Nov 11 (Bloomberg): China reduced the amount of time travellers and close contacts must spend in quarantine, and pulled back on testing, in a significant calibration of the Covid Zero policy that has isolated the world’s second-largest economy and raised public ire.

Travelers into China will be required to spend five days in a hotel or government quarantine facility, followed by three days confined to home, according to a National Health Commission statement Friday. The current rules require 10 days quarantine in total, with a week in a hotel then three days at home.