New China COVID rules spur concern as some cities halt routine tests - Reuters

BEIJING, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Several Chinese cities began cutting regular assemblage COVID-19 investigating connected Monday, days aft China announced an easing of immoderate of its heavy-handed coronavirus measures, sparking interest successful immoderate communities arsenic nationwide cases continued to rise.

In the bluish metropolis of Shijiazhuang, immoderate families expressed interest astir exposing their children to the microorganism astatine school, giving excuses specified arsenic toothaches oregon earaches for their children's absence, according to societal media posts pursuing a authorities media study that investigating successful the metropolis would end.

Other cities, including Yanji successful the northeast and Hefei successful the east, besides said they volition halt regular assemblage COVID testing, according to authoritative notices, halting a signifier that has go a large fiscal load for communities crossed China.

On Friday, the National Health Commission updated its COVID rules successful the astir important easing of curbs yet, describing the changes arsenic an "optimisation" of its measures to soften the interaction connected people's lives, adjacent arsenic China sticks to its zero-COVID argumentation astir 3 years into the pandemic.

The move, which chopped quarantine times for adjacent contacts of cases and inbound travellers by 2 days, to 8 days total, was applauded by investors, adjacent though galore experts don't expect China to statesman important easing until March oregon April astatine the earliest.

The changes travel adjacent arsenic respective large cities including Beijing logged grounds infections connected Monday, posing a situation for authorities scrambling to quell outbreaks rapidly portion trying to minimise the interaction connected people's lives and the economy.

Some areas of Beijing are requiring regular tests.

The interest and disorder successful Shijiazhuang was a top-five trending taxable connected the Twitter-like Weibo.

The city's Communist Party chief, Zhang Chaochao, said its "optimisation" of prevention measures should not beryllium seen arsenic authorities "lying flat" - an look for inaction - nor is Shijiazhuang moving towards "full liberation" from COVID curbs.

The city, astir 295 kms (183 miles) southwest of Beijing, reported 544 infections for Sunday, lone 3 of which it categorised arsenic symptomatic.

"I'm a small scared. In the future, nationalist places volition not look astatine nucleic acerb tests, and nucleic acerb trial points volition besides beryllium closed, everyone needs to wage for the tests," 1 Weibo idiosyncratic wrote, referring to Shijiazhuang.

Gavekal Research said successful a Monday enactment that it was "curious timing" for China to unbend its COVID policies: "The operation of an intensifying outbreak and loosening cardinal requirements has led to statement implicit whether China is present gradually moving to a de facto argumentation of tolerating Covid," it said.

FRESH RECORDS

Nationwide, 16,072 caller locally transmitted cases were reported by the National Health Commission, up from 14,761 connected Sunday and the astir successful China since April 25, erstwhile Shanghai was battling an outbreak that locked down the metropolis for 2 months.

Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Zhengzhou each recorded their worst days truthful far, though successful the superior metropolis the tally was a fewer 100 cases, portion the different cities were counting successful thousands.

Case numbers are tiny compared with corruption levels successful different countries, but China's insistence connected clearing outbreaks arsenic soon arsenic they look nether its zero-COVID argumentation has been wide disruptive to regular beingness and the economy.

Under the caller rules unveiled connected Friday, individuals, neighbourhoods and nationalist spaces tin inactive beryllium taxable to lockdowns, but the wellness committee relaxed immoderate measures.

In summation to shortening quarantines, secondary adjacent contacts are nary longer identified and enactment into isolation - removing what had been a large inconvenience for radical caught up successful contact-tracing efforts erstwhile a lawsuit is found.

Despite the loosening of curbs, galore experts described the measures arsenic incremental, with immoderate predicting that China is improbable to statesman reopening until aft the March league of parliament, astatine the earliest.

Analysts astatine Goldman Sachs said connected Monday that rising cases successful cities including Guangzhou and Chongqing and the continuation of the zero-COVID argumentation airs downside near-term economical risks.

Reporting by Liz Lee, Jason Xue, Wang Jing and Ryan Woo; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Tony Munroe and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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