Cut off from the rest of the world for three years by COVID-19 curbs, Chinese people have flocked to travel sites ahead of borders reopening, even as rising infections strain the health system and roil the economy.
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Zero-tolerance measures from shuttered borders to frequent lockdowns have battered China's economy since early 2020, fuelling last month the mainland's biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.
His policy U-turn this month means the virus is now spreading largely unchecked across the country of 1.4 billion people.
Official statistics, however, show no new COVID deaths reported for the six days through Sunday, fuelling doubts among health experts and residents about the government's data.
Doctors say hospitals are overwhelmed with five- to six-times more patients than usual, most of them elderly. International health experts estimate millions of daily infections and predict at least one million COVID deaths in China next year.
Nevertheless, authorities are determined to dismantle the last vestiges of their zero-COVID policies.
In a major step towards easing border curbs cheered by Asian stock markets on Tuesday, China will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine from January 8, the National Health Commission said late on Monday.
"It finally feels as if China has turned the corner," AmCham China chair Colm Rafferty said of the planned lifting of quarantine restrictions.
Data from travel platform Ctrip showed that within half an hour of the news, searches for popular cross-border destinations had increased 10-fold. Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, South Korea were the most sought-after, Ctrip said.
Data from another platform, Qunar, showed that within 15 minutes of the news, searches for international flights jumped seven-fold, with Thailand, Japan and South Korea at the top of the list.
China's management of COVID will also be downgraded to the less strict Category B from the current top-level Category A from January 8, the health authority said, as it has become less virulent.
The change means authorities will no longer be compelled to quarantine patients and their close contacts and lock down regions.
But for all the excitement of a gradual return to a pre-COVID way of life, there was mounting pressure on China's healthcare system, with doctors saying many hospitals are overwhelmed while funeral parlour workers report a surge in demand for their services.
Nurses and doctors have been asked to work while sick and retired medical workers in rural communities were being rehired to help, state media reported. Some cities have been struggling to secure supplies of anti-fever drugs.
Australian Associated Press
