Beijing’s top leadership body promises to improve quarantine, testing and treatment, but changes will be ‘cautious’ as wave of Covid-19 cases is predicted for winter and spring.
«:»China battled a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases as the country’s top leadership pledged to stick to its zero-Covid approach, though with more targeted measures. The country reported 10,535 local infections, including 9,385 asymptomatic cases, on Friday morning, up from 8,824 a day earlier. China reported about 1,000 local infections daily at the end of last month. The seven-member Politburo Standing Committee , China’s top leadership body, predicted a larger wave of Covid-19 cases in the winter and spring and decided to continue with the “dynamic zero” response , according to a Xinhua report on a committee meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping. No opening up as yet for China, as top leadership doubles down on zero-Covid It was the first Standing Committee meeting made public since Beijing’s new leadership was unveiled last month, and members urged local officials to carry out the response in a more “targeted and precise” manner to curb the spread of the virus. The leaders promised to optimise quarantine, testing, treatment and other control measures in 20 ways. Those changes, released on Friday afternoon, include cutting the central quarantine time for inbound travellers and ending the practice of cancelling flights if too many passengers from previous flights test positive on arrival.
