China will end mandatory quarantines on arrival in the country on January 8, the last vestige of its strict “zero COVID” health policy that isolated the country for almost three years.

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From next month, only a negative test of less than 48 hours will be required to enter Chinese territory, the Health Commission, which acts as a ministry, said Monday evening in a notice.

China is the only major economy that continued to impose quarantines on arrival on its territory that penalize tourism, even if their duration had been reduced in recent months.

It is currently 5 days at the hotel, followed by 3 days of observation at home.

The Health Commission has indicated that it no longer considers COVID-19 a "pneumonia", but a less dangerous "contagious" disease.

According to the authorities, this new health classification no longer justifies quarantines.

The Health Commission also mentioned a gradual restoration of foreign travel for the Chinese, without however advancing a timetable. Only trips for compelling reasons were previously tolerated.

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This decision comes at a time when China is experiencing an outbreak of contamination since the abandonment of most of its health restrictions at the beginning of the month.

Since 2020, China has imposed strict measures, in the name of a so-called “zero COVID-19” policy which has made it possible to protect those most at risk and those who are poorly vaccinated.

The government ended most of the measures without notice on December 7, against a backdrop of growing exasperation among the population and a considerable impact on the economy.

Since then, the number of cases has exploded, raising fears of high mortality among the oldest, who are particularly vulnerable.

Many crematoriums interviewed by AFP have reported an unusually high influx of bodies to be cremated in recent days.

A situation largely ignored by the Chinese media.

Hospitals are also overwhelmed, while anti-flu drugs are more difficult to find in pharmacies, as the country learns to live with the virus.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday ordered to "build a bulwark" against COVID-19 and "protect" lives in China.

This is his first public comment since the unexpected abandonment of most health measures.

"A bulwark"

The prevention and control of COVID-19 in China is facing a new situation with new tasks,” said the Beijing strongman on Monday.

"We must carry out a more targeted patriotic health campaign [...] and build a strong bulwark against the epidemic," Xi Jinping was quoted as saying by state television CCTV.

This lifting of restrictions could lead to the death of around a million people in the coming months, according to estimates from several Western studies.

China announced on Sunday that it will no longer publish statistics on COVID-19. They were widely criticized because of their total discrepancy with the current epidemic wave hitting the country.

According to the official report, the most populous country on the planet has recorded only six deaths from COVID-19 since the lifting of restrictions. A figure largely underestimated according to many experts.

The Chinese have noticed in recent days a glaring discrepancy between official statistics and the contamination of a large part of their relatives, or even their death.

The large metropolis of Canton (south), populated by 19 million inhabitants, has thus announced the postponement “after January 10” of the funeral ceremonies.

Another source of controversy: only people who died directly from respiratory failure linked to COVID-19 are now counted as deceased from the disease, under a new methodology from the authorities.

Some local governments, however, are beginning to put forward estimates of the scale of the epidemic.

Health authorities in Zhejiang (east), south of Shanghai, ruled on Sunday that the number of daily contaminations now exceeded the million mark in this province with a population of 65 million people.

In the capital Beijing, the authorities spoke on Saturday of “a large number of infected people” and called for “everything to be done to improve the recovery rate and reduce the mortality rate”.