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Coronavirus China
ChinaPolitics

China considers downgrading Covid’s status to remove need for strict controls

  • Beijing has been laying increasing stress on the milder nature of Omicron and some cities have already started easing their rules
  • One official said the downgrading of the disease – putting it on a par with HIV and viral hepatitis – could happen as soon as Wednesday

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Cities such as Beijing have started scaling back their testing requirements. Photo: Bloomberg
Zhuang Pinghuiin BeijingandWilliam Zhengin Hong Kong
The Chinese authorities are considering downgrading Covid-19 from the top class of infectious diseases, an official with knowledge of the situation has said – a move that would relieve local governments of the legal obligations to introduce strong controls such as lockdowns and isolating positive cases.
The downgrade would allow Covid-19 be managed more flexibly and in a less disruptive way – in line with a shift from zero-Covid.

02:19

Beijing begins to ease Covid rules, but business areas remain deserted

Beijing begins to ease Covid rules, but business areas remain deserted

Covid-19 was classified as a category B infectious disease – a class that also includes HIV, viral hepatitis and H7N9 bird flu – on January 20, 2020 – a day after Beijing announced it could spread from human-to-human. However, the announcement said it should be managed like a category A disease, putting it on a par with bubonic plague and cholera.

Outbreaks of these diseases require local governments to impose strong measures such as lockdowns, isolation and quarantine if they are needed to contain the spread, according to China’s Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases and other public health regulations.

Expectation has been growing among health officials that the National Health Commission will announce that in future the disease should now be treated like a category B. Reuters reported earlier this week that the change was expected next month, but recent announcements from the central government have raised hopes that the change will happen sooner than that.

“The original virus and the Delta variant were both more deadly, but, by the time Omicron appeared, the strong infectiousness and low death rate made it basically a category B infectious disease. The strong controls are based on category A which created the [chaotic] situation today,” said a provincial health commission official who declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

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