Beijing tiptoes out to reopenings

The Beijing city government said on Friday that it will lower its public health emergency level against COVID-19 from second-highest to third-highest starting on Saturday. It will also remove the 14-day quarantine requirement for returnees from Hubei province and lift traffic restrictions.

In addition, a second coronavirus test will no longer be required for returnees from Wuhan if the first one is negative.

The decision was made after 14 districts in the city reported no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases for 90 consecutive days as of Thursday. Haidian and Chaoyang districts had reported no new local cases for 73 and 50 days, respectively, Chen Bei, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing municipal government, said at a news conference on Friday.

The epidemic situation in Beijing is improving. School classes are resuming, and the opening of the annual two sessions for lawmakers also saw no new cases and no rebound, Chen said.

The city lowered its emergency level from the highest level to the second level in late April.

Residential communities in Beijing will continue implementing verification, code inspections and registrations, but body temperature checks will be dropped, Chen said.

Indoor and outdoor sports stadiums, as well as cultural and entertainment facilities in Beijing, will open gradually, she said.

The National Aquatics Center in Beijing, resumed operations on Tuesday, except for the swimming pools and tennis courts, with patronage held to below 3,000 per day.

Beijing activated the highest emergency level on Jan 24 to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.