Cities like GuangZhou, Chongquing and Beijing announced that they would relax some Covid measures amidst protests with lockdown, isolation and mass testing.
On Wednesday, China Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who is leading the country’s pandemic response, indicated that the country is “facing a new situation and new tasks” in the fight against COVID. Sun pointed to the lower pathogenicity of the Omicron variant and more widespread vaccination as reasons why China’s COVID policy could be “optimized in small steps.”