Image Source: Visual China

Beijing, June 28 (TMTPOST) – China announced on Tuesday that the mandatory Covid-19 hotel quarantine for inbound travelers has been cut to seven days from 14 days, which marks the first relaxation of China’s stringent entry restrictions in over two years. 

Under the new rules, inbound travelers are required to finish a 7-day mandatory quarantine  plus another three days of home monitoring, which is a drastic easing from the previous quarantine and home monitoring totalling 21 days.

This means that international travelers arriving in mainland China only need to stay at a government-designated quarantine facility for seven days and then at home in isolation for three days.

Inbound travelers also need to take a Covid-19 test on the first, second, third, fifth and seventh day of the quarantine. They will also have to take one PCR test on the third day of home isolation.

In the new guidelines, China emphasizes that it will stick to the dynamic zero-Covid policy, protect the Chinese people’s health and safety and strike a balance between pandemic control and economic development.

China shut down its borders at the very beginning of the pandemic. International flights and foreign entry remain to be heavily restricted.

The relaxation of the new guidelines was cheered by the market. Stock markets rose in Hong Kong and the mainland after the new guidelines were announced, with the Hang Seng Index rallying and ticking up 0.9% and the CSI300 Index gaining 1%. Shares in mainland tourism companies jumped more than 5%.

Search entries involving international flights on online travel platform Qunar doubled one hour after the release of the new guidelines. Pre-ordering of international flights grew by nearly 60% in one hour compared with the same period last week.