٠٠:٠٣:٠٤China: Officials release 10 'optimised requirements' to ease COVID restrictions
China's National Health Commission officials announced 10 measures to help ease COVID-19 restrictions across the country, during a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.
“Because of the hard lockdown measures strongly reflected by the public, the new 10 optimised requirements strictly prohibit blocking fire passageways, unit doors, and community gates in various ways. We need to ensure the smooth passage for people to seek medical treatment, emergency refuge, and so on," explained He Qinghua from the National Health Commission.
"The practice of hard lockdown is not precise prevention and control, but laziness leads to the disregard of safety and of the lives and property of the public, which should be resolutely stopped," the official continued.
The 10-point plan includes home quarantine, reduced frequency of testing, scrapping health code requirements for many public places and lifting them for cross-regional travellers too.
Guo Yanhong, from the Commission’s Medical Administration and Hospital Administration, outlined the plan for home treatment.
"Infected people should carry out self-health monitoring and symptomatic treatment at home, especially for asymptomatic patients. It should be said that there is no need for treatment, just do a good job of home self-health monitoring," she stated.
Wang Liping from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention also explained how the plan would change isolation restrictions.
"Under our new 10 articles, we can only determine the floors or households with relatively high exposure risk, so as to minimise the inconvenience caused by the epidemic to the lives of the public," he said.
China’s new COVID-19 cases reached around 25,000 on Wednesday, down from a high of 40,000 per day the previous week.
Protests over strict restrictions were seen across the country, following a fire which killed 10 people in an apartment block in Urumqi.
Some protesters believed it was exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdown measures, but Chinese media reports suggested the area was classified as 'low risk' with those inside allowed to come and go.
٠٠:٠٣:٠٤China's National Health Commission officials announced 10 measures to help ease COVID-19 restrictions across the country, during a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.
“Because of the hard lockdown measures strongly reflected by the public, the new 10 optimised requirements strictly prohibit blocking fire passageways, unit doors, and community gates in various ways. We need to ensure the smooth passage for people to seek medical treatment, emergency refuge, and so on," explained He Qinghua from the National Health Commission.
"The practice of hard lockdown is not precise prevention and control, but laziness leads to the disregard of safety and of the lives and property of the public, which should be resolutely stopped," the official continued.
The 10-point plan includes home quarantine, reduced frequency of testing, scrapping health code requirements for many public places and lifting them for cross-regional travellers too.
Guo Yanhong, from the Commission’s Medical Administration and Hospital Administration, outlined the plan for home treatment.
"Infected people should carry out self-health monitoring and symptomatic treatment at home, especially for asymptomatic patients. It should be said that there is no need for treatment, just do a good job of home self-health monitoring," she stated.
Wang Liping from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention also explained how the plan would change isolation restrictions.
"Under our new 10 articles, we can only determine the floors or households with relatively high exposure risk, so as to minimise the inconvenience caused by the epidemic to the lives of the public," he said.
China’s new COVID-19 cases reached around 25,000 on Wednesday, down from a high of 40,000 per day the previous week.
Protests over strict restrictions were seen across the country, following a fire which killed 10 people in an apartment block in Urumqi.
Some protesters believed it was exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdown measures, but Chinese media reports suggested the area was classified as 'low risk' with those inside allowed to come and go.