China Issues Passports to Own Compatriots Again After Sentence to 17 Years in Prison: South Korea’s Ex-President Lee Myung Bak Pardoned

After the abrupt end of the zero corona policy, Chinese people will soon be able to go on holiday abroad again. As the National Immigration Service announced on Tuesday, Chinese people who want to travel abroad should be able to apply for passports again from January 8.

China stopped issuing new passports for tourist travel shortly after the start of the pandemic. As a rule, only urgent business trips and stays abroad for study purposes were approved.

The Beijing Health Commission had already announced on Monday that the danger level of the coronavirus would be lowered from January 8 and that the quarantine on entry into China would also be lifted. Recently, travelers were isolated in a hotel room for at least five days and closely monitored. Sometimes even an entry quarantine of 21 days was required.

The virus is currently spreading at lightning speed after the end of the zero-Covid policy in early December. According to officially unconfirmed internal estimates, 248 million people or 18 percent of the population were infected with Corona in the first three weeks of December alone. Hospitals are overcrowded and many crematoriums can no longer cremate the corpses fast enough. (sda/dpa)