Going to China is now less restrictive.

The country is lifting the mandatory quarantine for travelers from abroad this Sunday, ending a self-imposed isolation just as it is facing a surge in Covid-19 cases at home.

After three years of some of the most draconian restrictions in the world, which weighed on its economy and ended up sparking protests across the country, China last month abruptly lifted most of its measures to fight the pandemic.

Mandatory quarantine since March 2020

The last act of this dismantling: the end of the strict quarantines in dedicated hotels to which, since March 2020, all people arriving from abroad have been required to submit.

Initially three weeks, the duration of this quarantine had already been reduced to one week last summer, then to five days in November.

The announcement in December of the end of the quarantine prompted the Chinese to make numerous plans to travel abroad, with a dramatic increase in traffic on booking sites.

But the prospect of a massive influx of Chinese tourists has prompted more than a dozen countries to impose screening tests on travelers from China, where the number of contaminations has exploded since the abrupt end of the “zero Covid” policy. ".

A boom in contamination expected with the New Year

Above all, the epidemic could worsen in the run-up to the Chinese New Year holiday at the end of January, during which millions of people are expected to leave the hard-hit megacities for the countryside to visit their relatives, often old and vulnerable.

In Hong Kong, strict travel restrictions to and from the rest of China are also being eased this Sunday.

The region's recession-hit economy is desperate to return to growth, and families are eagerly awaiting Chinese New Year reunions.

More than 280,000 Hong Kongers have registered to travel to the mainland less than a day after the announcement of the new rules.

An initial quota of at least 60,000 travelers per day in each direction has been established.

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