China to drop quarantine requirement for overseas visitors

Currently, arriving passengers must quarantine for five days at a hotel, followed by three days at home. At one stage there was a requirement to quarantine for three weeks.

The scrapping of the measure is a major step toward fully reopening travel with the rest of the world, which the government severely curtailed in a bid to keep the virus out.

The restrictions have prevented most Chinese people from travelling abroad, limited face-to-face diplomatic exchanges and sharply reduced the number of foreigners in China for work and study.

People coming to China will still need a negative virus test 48 hours before departure and passengers will be required to wear protective masks on board planes, an online post from the health commission said.

China abruptly dropped many of its pandemic restrictions earlier this month, sparking widespread Covid outbreaks that have swamped hospital emergency facilities and funeral homes.

The move followed rare public protests against the restrictions, which have hit the economy, putting people out of work and driving restaurants and shops out of business.

For more than two and a half years, Chinese authorities enforced a strict zero-Covid approach that became a signature policy of leader Xi Jinping.

The arrival of the fast-spreading Omicron variant in late 2021 made the strategy increasingly untenable, requiring ever-wider lockdowns that stymied growth and disrupted lives.