China has signaled its intention to keep easing its antivirus measures despite apparently widespread infections in major cities, with local media denying any backpedaling of the relaxation and a senior official hinting at easing border controls in the near future.
Beijing Youth Daily said Tuesday the significant relaxation of the strict COVID restrictions implemented last week will not be reversed, with a smartphone app showing users' travel records abolished the same day. The app had been available nationwide and was used to restrict people's movement.
The newspaper said there will be no more repeated lockdowns in areas where outbreaks occur, and the economy is expected to recover. Restrictions on group tours to Beijing were also lifted Tuesday.
China's ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, said at a U.S. media event on Monday he believes antivirus measures will be further relaxed in the near future and "international travel will become easier" from all the directions to the Asian country.
Although its strict "zero-COVID" policy involving lockdowns has been significantly relaxed, travelers from abroad are still subject to quarantine periods of eight days.
In Beijing, virus spread was believed to have continued with the number of patients visiting hospitals treating those with a high fever jumping 16-fold to 22,000 as of Sunday compared with a week earlier. Municipal authorities said the city has tripled the number of fever clinics to 300.
The government has encouraged people to recuperate at home if their infection has been detected through an antigen test kit. Official counts of infections do not reflect reality as positive cases from home testing are no longer required to be reported to authorities.
In China, only domestically developed vaccines are available and those tailored for the Omicron variants, such as those produced by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., have not been approved.
Some citizens have questioned the efficacy of the Chinese vaccines. A health expert said at a press conference Tuesday that their effect in preventing infections or development of COVID-19 symptoms was "not as ideal as we expected," but they could still prevent severe illness and death.
The protracted stringent antivirus measures had slowed down the growth of the world's second-largest economy. Following the easing of the COVID restrictions, a major Chinese think tank estimated Tuesday that the country's economy will post around 5.1 percent expansion in real terms in 2023, according to local media.
The forecast by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences contrasts with 2023 growth projections of 4.4 percent and 4.5 percent for China by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, respectively.
With the recent spread of infections disrupting logistics and dampening consumption in China, where the real estate sector remains sluggish, it may prove difficult to achieve the 5.1 percent growth next year.
For this year, China had earlier set its growth target at around 5.5 percent. But the economy logged a 3.9 percent expansion from a year earlier in the July to September period, following a two-month lockdown of Shanghai through May.
