China to lift all unnecessary COVID-19 restrictions soon

As soon as possible, unnecessary restrictions at the grassroots should be removed as soon as possible.

Delivery workers wait to pick up meals at a food street in Beijing on Tuesday. The demand for food delivery has soared as many people have been quarantined at home for COVID 19 control. FENG YONGBIN CHINA DAILY Authorities will accelerate the lifting of unnecessary restrictions that are in place after the recent Omicron outbreaks to reduce the disease control strategies' economic fallout and other resulting inconveniences, a senior health official said on Tuesday.

National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said local governments are working to make concrete and detailed plans after central authorities unveiled the 20 measures on optimizing the country's COVID 19 strategies this month.

According to a news conference in Beijing, local authorities must make a precise judgment about the designation of risky areas, and remove all unnecessary restrictions as soon as possible, based on contact tracing and nucleic acid test results.

He said that there should be more efforts to get rid of bureaucracy and over-simplicity in the implementation process at the grassroots level, and to respond to sensible public demands.

The remarks came after Omicron variants triggered widespread lock-downs of residential complexes across the country.

The rage ensued after a fire broke out at a residential high-rise in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, killing 10 people.

Mi said that the adjustment has never stopped, asked if China will make changes to its containment measures in the face of public discontentment.

Since the outbreak, the Chinese government has been doing research and making adjustments as the virus mutates and as the clinical data accumulates, he said, adding that the changes of the transmissibility and potency of the Omicron variant, including the rate of severe illness and mortality, are closely watched for potential policy changes.

The aim is to maximize the protection of people's interests and minimize the impact of the epidemic on socioeconomic development, he said.

The recent surge in public ire is mostly due to the negligence of local governments in meeting the demands of the public in restricted areas, and the one-size-all approach to controlling the spread of COVID, rather than the control measures themselves, said Cheng Youquan, an official with the National Disease Control Bureau.

Some places impose control measures without approval, and sometimes unnecessarily expand the area and people involved in the restriction, and don't lift restrictions for a long time, and some places even impose control measures without approval, he said.

He said that special commissions have been established across the country to tackle such wrongdoings, and are responding to problems posed by netizens.

According to the National Health Commission, the Chinese mainland reported 3,561 local cases and 34,860 local asymptomatic carriers on Tuesday. The number of severely ill patients was 106 on Tuesday.