Beijing to let some low-risk patients home quarantine as covid soars

Those allowed to home quarantine include people with special physical or living conditions, such as pregnant women, one of the people said, as well as those strongly resistant to going into government-run isolation, according to the people.

Calls to the Beijing city government and its health commission weren’t answered.

The move, which diminishes the level of control officials have over infected people, comes as Beijing experiences its largest outbreak of the pandemic, with more than 5,000 cases reported on Wednesday. The temporary quarantine centers built to house infected people are running out of capacity, the people said.

The shift also follows protests across China at the weekend against the country’s strict approach to containing the virus, known as Covid Zero.

China has signaled a transition away from the harshest Covid curbs in recent days, re-emphasizing a revised playbook that relies more on targeted measures to control the virus than the sweeping lockdowns and blanket testing regimes that have become the norm over the past three years. That approach, which worked in snuffing out Wuhan’s initial outbreak, has become harder to maintain since the arrival of the more infectious omicron variant and is taking an increasing toll on the world’s second-largest economy.

Rhetoric from top government and health officials indicates they are looking to prepare the Chinese population for wider spread and a potential exit from Covid Zero. They are prioritizing bolstering lagging vaccination rates among the elderly, one of the biggest roadblocks on the country’s reopening path. China is also considering rolling out a fourth vaccine dose, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

Rhetorical Shift 

Outgoing Vice Premier Sun Chunlan -- the leader that besides President Xi Jinping has been most closely associated with Covid Zero -- struck a altered tone at a meeting with the NHC and other health experts in Beijing on Wednesday.

“As the omicron variant becomes less pathogenic, more people get vaccinated and our experience in Covid prevention accumulates, our fight against the pandemic is at a new stage and it comes with new tasks,” she said.

Fear of being transported to what many view as quarantine camps has seen Beijing’s streets deserted as the outbreak intensified. Conditions at the sites, often constructed hastily with pre-fab buildings, shipping containers and even tents, can be very poor. Close contacts of people infected with Covid are also required to go into government facilities, though some cities have been easing that rule this week.

Southern Guangdong province said earlier this week that close contacts who meet certain requirements can remain at home instead of going to centralized isolation facilities. Its capital, the manufacturing hub Guangzhou, later replaced lockdowns in four districts with more targeted restrictions, adding to cautious optimism China’s mindset around Covid has turned a corner.