China decided to cancel the mandatory test for COVID when entering the country

At the same time, all entrants will still have to have the results of a PCR test on hand,returned up to 48 hours before crossing the border

Chinese customs will cancel the mandatory covid test for those entering the country from January 8, 2023, REUTERS reported.

“From January 8, 2023, PCR testing for CORONAVIRUS for all arrivals will be canceled,” the General Administration of Customs of CHINA said in a statement.

However, all travelers will still be required to provide Customs with the results of a PCR test taken 48 hours before crossing the border.

In addition, starting January 8, China will stop testing frozen food for COVID.

China, three years after the start of the pandemic, will lift the quarantine for entering the Society

The Chinese authorities have long adhered to a policy of "zero tolerance" for the coronavirus. In the country, despite the fact that the pandemic began to decline, strict restrictions and quarantines remained, which could cover entire cities and individual areas. Against this background, protests began in the country, the participants of which gradually, along with demands for easing restrictions, began to put forward political demands.

In the autumn and winter of 2022, COVID outbreaks increased in the country. BLOOMBERG reported on December 23 that since the beginning of December, a quarter of a billion people in China have fallen ill with COVID, which is about 18% of the country's population. The agency referred to data from a closed meeting of the National HEALTH Commission of China. Most of those infected fell ill with coronavirus during December, while in one day on December 20, 37 million people became infected with COVID. This is the largest spike in coronavirus infections in China since the start of the pandemic.

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However, authorities continue to ease anti-COVID restrictions. From January 8, China will no longer have mandatory quarantine for all travelers entering the country. Quarantine for those entering China has been maintained since the beginning of the pandemic, the authorities of the country began to soften it only this fall, the quarantine period was reduced to eight days.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post writes that the decision "marks the latest step in the end of a three-year zero-tolerance policy for the coronavirus." Since 2020, COVID has been considered a category A infectious disease in China. This puts it on a par with bubonic plague and cholera. But now doctors in China have received new instructions that classify COVID as a category B disease, which no longer requires mandatory isolation.

Earlier, the National Health Commission stopped publishing daily reports on the number of cases. According to the data for the last day of publications - December 22 - 3761 new cases of COVID were detected in the country per day, and the total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic has reached 393 thousand people.