Beijing opens up restaurants, cinemas as China eases Covid curbs

Life in Beijing will take a step closer to returning to normal Monday, as the capital rolls back Covid-19 restrictions having previously declared the latest outbreak of the virus was under control.

Public transport will resume in most districts, except Fengtai and some parts of Changping, allowing workers to return to the office and restaurants to start dine-in services, local authorities said Sunday. Entertainment facilities like cinemas will open in most areas, with capacity capped at 75%. Residents are allowed to move about freely as long as they have a negative Covid test result within the past 72 hours. The previous requirement was 48 hours.

The capital reported 6 infections for Sunday, down from 19 on Saturday. As of 3 p.m. local time on Monday, it had detected no cases, heading for a third straight day of zero transmission outside of quarantine.

China has trumpeted its Covid Zero approach, which included an unprecedented two-month lockdown of Shanghai and harsh restrictions elsewhere, for bringing its outbreak under better control. But its success has come at an enormous economic and social cost and hasn’t totally eliminated infections, underscoring the challenges officials would face if they tried to pivot away from a strategy that puts cities at constant risk of repeatedly locking down and reopening.

Local governments should strike a more efficient balance between Covid control and economic development, Lei Zhenglong, an official at the National Health Commission, said at a briefing on Sunday. Authorities have laid out nine arbitrary measures, including around travel and quarantine, that will be banned in order to ease the burden on the economy, he said.

Chinese stocks advanced on Monday as a loosening of Covid-19 restrictions increased bets that economic activity will pick up. The CSI 300 Index jumped 1.9%, the most in more than two weeks, while the smaller, growth-heavy ChiNext gauge rallied near 4%.

Arbitrary Covid measures that are banned include:

Authorities won’t expand the scope of travel restrictions beyond medium- and high-risk areas

Authorities won’t implement forced quarantine on people from low-risk areas

Authorities won’t prolong control measures for medium- and high-risk areas

Authorities won’t deny health care due to Covid-control measures

Authorities won’t forcefully close facilities such as essential businesses in low-risk areas

China’s zero-tolerance approach has left the country isolated from the rest of the world and most economists predict it will fail to meet its growth target for this year. The cycle of lockdowns has roiled global supply chains, with some factories shut for months and residents subject to movement restrictions, mass testing and mandatory isolation of all Covid cases and their close contacts.

In Shanghai, cases fell to 8 on Sunday from 22 on Saturday. Relief over last week’s lifting of a grueling lockdown has been curtailed somewhat by an uptick in cases outside government mandated quarantine, with three cases found. Residents living in compounds where new cases have been detected are thrust back into lockdown.

China’s overall outbreak has been trending down steadily, but prevention remains “complicated” with new clusters emerging, the NHC’s Zhenglong said.

The Inner Mongolia region reported 49 cases, while the northeastern city of Dandong announced 13 new local infections. The county of Donggang, governed by Dandong and home to a port that’s a hub of trade with North Korea, imposed travel restrictions on Saturday due to rising local cases. 

(Updates to add details of Beijing infections in third paragraph.)