BEIJING: China on Tuesday slashed the quarantine time for inbound travellers by half in a major easing of one of the world's strictest COVID-19 curbs, which have deterred travel in and out of the country since 2020.
China has cautiously eased its COVID curbs on cross-border travellers in recent months, with health officials saying the shorter incubation period of the Omicron variant allows for an adjustment of quarantine periods. Stock markets rose in Hong Kong and China, with the Hang Seng Index reversing losses and ticking up roughly 0.4 per cent and the CSI300 Index gaining 0.7 per cent.Beijing and Shanghai reported on Tuesday no new local COVID-19 infections, the first time both cities were in the clear simultaneously since late February, after months of fighting their worst-ever outbreaks.
The Walt Disney Co's Shanghai Disney Resort said on Tuesday that it would reopen the Disneyland theme park on Jun 30; it had been shut for more than three months.Authorities, however, remained wary and were adamant that the government's so-called dynamic zero COVID policy, which aims at blocking flare-ups from spreading as they crop up, remains in place.
"Surely it wasn't a mistake! It's meant to gauge public opinion!" said a user of the Weibo social media platform.
Too little, too late.