SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China said on Saturday it will stop checking truck drivers and ship crew transporting goods domestically for COVID-19, removing a key bottleneck from its supply chain network as a dismantling of the country’s zero-COVID policy gathers speed.
The country this week made a dramatic pivot toward economic reopening, loosening key parts of the COVID policy in a shift that has been welcomed by a weary public but additionally is now stoking concerns that infections could spike and cause further disruptions.
With Beijing requiring less testing and letting those with mild to no symptoms quarantine at home, the main target has shifted to making sure adequate provisions of medicines and shoring up the country’s healthcare system, which experts say could possibly be quickly overwhelmed.
Three years after the coronavirus emerged in central China, residents were looking forward to Beijing to begin to align with the remainder of the world, which has largely opened up in an effort to live with COVID. After widespread protests, the authorities switched course, sparking fear in a rustic with a comparatively low vaccination rate where people had been taught to fear the disease.
Earlier this 12 months, amid mass lockdowns, much of China’s supply chain network was thrown into chaos by requirements for those involved in goods transportation to point out negative COVID test results or health codes at check points.
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Removing those curbs goals especially at ensuring the sleek supply of medicines and items reminiscent of antigen kits, authorities said.
“No efforts needs to be spared to make sure smooth delivery of medical supplies,” China’s transport ministry said in a notice.
Long queues have formed at pharmacies in lots of Chinese cities by people seeking to buy cough medicines, flu drugs and masks and the state market regulator over the weekend warned against price gouging in anti-COVID products.
The China’s State Administration for Market Regulation published guidelines to manage the web sale of medication, masks, antigen testing reagents and food, cautioning web corporations specifically to not “profiteer from the pandemic”.
In one other shift, China agreed to let Germany provide BioNTech’s COVID vaccine to German nationals within the country, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday. Beijing had until now insisted on only administering domestically produced vaccines.
China’s abrupt easing has unnerved corporations, a lot of which had been frustrated by the policy but had adapted to the inconveniences.
Sources at two Western carmakers with factories in China told Reuters on Friday they were monitoring the situation on the bottom rigorously.
One expressed concern the virus would spread quickly as restrictions ease, increasing the likelihood of staff sickness and potentially hurting output.
One other said the situation was “unpredictable”, with the relief this week at reopening potentially turning out to be short-lived.
Others, nevertheless, describe the reopening a possibility to be seized, with major coastal provinces reminiscent of Guangdong and Hainan busily arranging trips overseas to make up for trade opportunities lost due to strict COVID border controls.
The town of Dongguan in China’s manufacturing hub of southern Guangdong Province said it held a conference to mobilise businesses to exit, “explore markets and grab orders.”
Dongguan’s commerce bureau said 92 representatives from 52 corporations in the town have applied to take part in a trade expo within the United Arab Emirates this month. The federal government can also be arranging trips to trade fairs and exhibitions in places including Hong Kong, Japan, and the USA, the bureau said in a press release.
China, which has all but shut its borders to international travel and curbed non-essential travel by residents for nearly three years, shortened quarantines by two days for inbound travellers last month. Wednesday’s measures didn’t mention overseas travel.
Feelings were similarly mixed on the streets of China’s largest cities, Beijing and Shanghai.
“Business has not picked up because the measures were eased. Persons are cautious. I’d say business is down about 60% from one and a half weeks ago,” said Chen Zhengyan, who owns a hair salon in Chaoyang, Beijing’s largest district.
He said that with fewer customers, he had only asked half of his staff to are available.
In Shanghai, which has removed several requirements including having a test result to enter restaurants, people gingerly ventured out for errands or strolls along popular shopping streets and tourist spots.
“I’m comfortable that Shanghai is finally coming back to life, but we still should be cautious about our health. We must always wear masks and protect ourselves rigorously,” said an engineer who gave his surname as Xi as he took photos of the town’s skyline on the Bund.
China reported 13,585 recent locally transmitted COVID cases for Friday, of which 3,034 were symptomatic and 10,551 were asymptomatic. This was down from 16,592 the day prior to this and sharply lower from record highs hit earlier this month, amid less testing.
(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Brenda Goh; Additional reporting by Jason Xue in Shanghai, Liz Lee in Beijing and Victoria Waldersee in Berlin; Editing by William Mallard)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
