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People with Covid-19 symptoms in one of China’s largest cities can now go to work “as usual,” according to state media on Monday, a dramatic change in a country where a single case could previously lock down thousands.
The world’s most populous country is unwinding years of hardline coronavirus policy, with Covid spreading rapidly in the aftermath of the official end of mass lockdowns, testing, and quarantines.
With authorities admitting the outbreak is “impossible” to track, the southern megacity of Chongqing – home to around 32 million people – became one of the first in China to allow people to work normally despite visible symptoms, according to the Chongqing Daily, citing a notice from municipal authorities.
The notice, issued Sunday, said that “mildly symptomatic” government, party and state workers “can work as normal after undertaking personal protections in accordance with their physical conditions and needs of their jobs”.
It also urged residents not to take virus tests “unnecessarily” or to require people to show a negative result, with exceptions for certain facilities such as nursing homes, schools, and prisons.
Despite evidence that some hospitals and crematoriums are dealing with an increase in cases and deaths, as well as fears of a wave of infections in underdeveloped rural areas during the upcoming public holidays, authorities have remained firm.
Visits to hospitals and clinics surged in the days following China’s lifting of restrictions, though the World Health Organization said the virus was already spreading widely in the country as “the control measures in themselves were not stopping the disease”.
As the country learns to coexist with the virus for the first time, cities and provinces across China have been forced to adjust their public health offerings.
According to state media, authorities in the eastern city of Suzhou have rushed to convert testing sites into makeshift fever treatment centres.
Other cities, including Beijing, have distributed free medical kits to residents and urged patients to seek online consultations rather than visiting hospitals, according to state media.
