China no longer requires COVID-19 testing for entry. The country no longer mandates travelers to show COVID-19 tests, a notable move towards lifting health restrictions.
China had enforced stringent measures for almost three years, occasionally isolating entire communities.
Visitors had to quarantine in specified hotels, and some residents were forcibly confined to their homes to contain the virus.
The easing of isolation rules started last December, following protests against health restrictions and subsequent police crackdowns.
The Communist Party’s Politburo, led by Xi Jinping, announced the policy changes.
Although officials did not associate the alterations with the protests, they did modify their stance on the virus’s health threats, aligning China with nations that had discarded restrictions and adapted to the virus.
Pre-pandemic, mainland China welcomed 30 million overseas tourists each year.
Yet, the pandemic and nearly three years of border closures significantly decreased international tourism, exacerbated by bans on tourism visas and entry-related red tape.
Recovery signs emerged in January, as flight searches to China surged by 59%, but the enthusiasm was fleeting.
In this year’s first quarter, travel agencies organized trips for 50,000 visitors to China, a far cry from the 3.7 million in the equivalent pre-pandemic period.
The Wall Street Journal deduced that Beijing and Shanghai had drawn fewer than a quarter of their pre-Covid tourists.
Since relaxing Covid constraints, the government has encountered a sluggish economic revival.
The restrictions and diplomatic frictions with the US and other Western nations prompted some foreign firms to curtail investments in China.
As of Monday, the WHO reported 121,628 Covid-related deaths in China, a figure deemed low globally, particularly given China’s 1.4 billion inhabitants.