BEIJING (AFP) -- People in China reacted with joy and rushed to plan trips abroad Tuesday after Beijing said it would scrap mandatory Covid quarantine for overseas arrivals that will end almost three years of self-imposed isolation.
In a snap move late Monday, China said that from January 8 inbound travelers would no longer need to quarantine, as it further unwinds hardline virus controls that had torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests.
Infections have surged nationwide as key pillars of the containment policy have fallen away, with authorities acknowledging the outbreak is “impossible” to track and doing away with much-maligned case tallies.
Beijing also narrowed the criteria by which Covid fatalities are counted last week, a move experts said would suppress the number of deaths attributable to the virus.
Still, many Chinese reacted with joy to the end of restrictions that have kept the country largely closed off to the world since March 2020.
“I felt like the epidemic is finally over... The travel plans I made three years ago may now become a reality,” said Beijing office worker Fan Chengcheng, 27.
A Shanghai resident surnamed Chen said the policy shift “felt like someone has pressed the button to end the movie”, adding that it would allow her parents in Britain to visit her more easily.
“Finally, China’s going back to normal,” she told AFP. “It shows there are people who still care about global commerce and the impact on the Chinese economy.”
Another Shanghai local, surnamed Du, said a swifter reopening may help the country reach so-called herd immunity more quickly, adding that there was “no way to avoid” the virus in the eastern megacity.
Online searches for flights abroad surged on the news, with travel platform Tongcheng seeing an 850 percent jump in searches and a ten-fold spike in enquiries about visas, according to state media reports.
Rival platform Trip.com Group said the volume of searches for popular overseas destinations rose by 10 times year-on-year within half an hour of the announcement.
Users were particularly keen on trips to Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea, it added.