The announced end of the quarantine requirement upon entry into China has led to a rush to book flights into the country. Online searches for flights abroad increased rapidly, state media reported on Tuesday. The Tongcheng travel platform saw an 850 percent increase in searches for air travel and 10 times more searches for visa regulations.
The Beijing government announced on Monday evening that the quarantine obligation for travelers would end on January 8. Travelers then only have to submit a negative corona test that is not older than 48 hours. The announcement was received with enthusiasm in China. “It’s over. Spring is coming,” wrote a user of the online service Weibo, who received numerous positive reactions. “I’m preparing my trip abroad!” cheered another.
In early December, Beijing radically backed away from its strict zero-Covid policy. Since then, the corona virus has been spreading rapidly in China and the country has experienced the highest increase in infections in the world. According to estimates, about a million people could die in the coming months as a result of a corona infection.
The Japanese are concerned and reacting
China stopped publishing daily corona data on Sunday. The national health commission announced that the number of new infections and deaths would no longer be published daily. She gave no reason for this.
Japan has responded to the easing. From Friday, anyone coming from China or who has been there for the past seven days must be tested upon arrival in Japan, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, 65, told reporters on Tuesday. If the test is positive, a seven-day isolation in a designated facility is necessary. Tokyo will also restrict flights from China, Kishida said.
With the obligation to test, his government is responding to information “that the infection is spreading rapidly in China,” Kishida said. It is difficult to assess the exact situation because there are “major discrepancies in information between central and local authorities and between the government and the private sector,” Kishida said. This is causing increasing concern in Japan. (SDA/AFP/jmh)