China move to ease COVID restrictions hailed world wide

Published: December 29,2022

By Staff writer  

Starting from January 8, 2023, passengers from abroad entering China will no longer be required to be confined into quarantine. China’s National Health Commission (NHC) announced that the management of COVID-19 will be downgraded from Class A to Class B from on the same date. However, they will still need a negative COVID-19 test result within 48 hours of their departure and to wear masks on flights. 

Restrictions on the number of flights entering China per day will also be removed. The ministry of Foreign Affairs also said that it will further optimize arrangements for foreigners returning to China for work resumption, business, study, family visits and reunions, and provide visa facilities accordingly.

China the second largest economy in the world is a market for a number of manufactured goods that businesses around the world are interested in buying. Due to the COVID19 restrictions, many traders could not travel to China. In East Africa where most of the goods are imported from China, traders showed optimism that there businesses are going to be revived with the new policy in place. Spending days in quarantine was expensive to many traders who could not afford the added expenditures for hotel accommodation and meals. 

Students who wished to study in China were also not able to travel to the preferred universities and some of them changing to find other universities or studying online which was not convenient to some students who come from countries where internet connectivity is not reliable.  Some students who has left China on the outbreak of the pandemic were not able to get back to their schools and have been following their studies online while other were discoraged and dropped out. 

The border-easing measures will not only speed up the recovery of the domestic economy but will also greatly strengthen the global flow of personnel, capital and technology, which serve as a strong support to global supply chains, said experts. Apart from boosting global economy, allowing unrestricted entry of visitors to China will increase tourism potential as well as conferences that could not be held in person.