China continues to ease COVID-19 restrictions amid near-record numbers of daily cases

MADRID, 3 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Chinese authorities have continued in recent hours with their policy of easing restrictions against the coronavirus pandemic in major cities despite the fact that the country continues to suffer almost unprecedented numbers of daily cases, with 40,000 cases on average in the last week.

For now, the authorities in the capital, Beijing, have canceled the measures that required the presentation of access permits for public transport and residents of cities such as Chengdu or Canton no longer have to present a negative coronavirus test to access most of the public places.

All shopping centers in Beijing will open their doors this Saturday but they will not serve food yet and a negative test will be necessary to enter the shops.

The capital, recalls the 'Global Times', reported 1,738 new cases in the last few hours on Friday, of which 123 were identified in areas outside of quarantine.

The official Xinhua news agency even published an editorial last Friday in which it called for the immediate lifting of the remaining measures after warning of the great impact that the "zero COVID" policy declared by the authorities has had on the population.

This ennui reached a fever pitch last week, when the country became the scene of protests, especially in the Xinjiang region in the northwest of the country, where ten people died before the late intervention of firefighters precisely because of the measures of sanitary control.