Chinese health authorities on Friday eased some of the country's heavy COVID-19 curbs, including shortening by two days quarantine times for close contacts of cases and inbound travellers, and eliminating a penalty on airlines for bringing in infected passengers.
Under the new rules, quarantine for close contacts will be cut to five days at a centralised location plus three days at home, from seven days centralised and three days at home previously. A similar shortening of quarantine rules was made for inbound travellers.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities stepped up COVID lockdowns and other curbs to contain outbreaks as the number of cases soared to its highest since millions of people were confined to their homes this year, with Beijing and Zhengzhou seeing record tallies.
Authorities reported 10,535 new domestically transmitted cases for Thursday, the highest number since April 29, when the commercial hub of Shanghai, was battling its most serious outbreak under strict lockdown.
The nationwide surge, still small by global standards and for a country of 1.4 billion people, has spurred the top leadership to reaffirm its zero-tolerance strategy for the virus, a policy that President Xi Jinping says is to save lives, especially among the elderly.
The southern city of Guangzhou - the new epicenter of China's COVID fight - reported 2,824 new local cases for Nov. 10, the fourth day in which infections exceeded 2,000.
Driving the infections were cases in the populous Haizhu district, which on Friday extended a lockdown until Sunday. At least three of Guangzhou's 11 districts have been put under varying levels of restrictions.
