China continued to ease anti-covid restrictions amid large-scale protests in the country – on December 7, some rules were relaxed. Writes about it Bloomberg.
Through protests, residents were able to secure permission for some citizens to quarantine at home rather than in special camps, as well as the removal of the requirement to take a coronavirus test to enter most public places. In addition, new measures include accelerated vaccination of older people and a ban on local authorities from classifying residential complexes as high-risk facilities by closing them for quarantine.
At the end of November 2022, mass protests took place in a number of cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai. The demonstrations were triggered by tight anti-COVID restrictions and a fire in the city of Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Residents of some areas are practically forbidden to leave their apartments – and on December 24, 10 people died during a fire in a residential building, the residents of which were under quarantine. In social networks, they began to actively discuss that people could not leave the burning building due to restrictions. In Shanghai, protesters began to raise anti-government slogans, including "Xi Jinping, go away!" and "Communist Party, go away," reports the BBC.
After the protests, the authorities initiated an investigation against citizens, the police demanded that they come to the station with explanations. However, in early December, the COVID lockdown policy began to ease, even as the daily number of cases is nearing a record.