The city of Shanghai is lifting some of China’s draconian anti-covid policies from Monday, authorities announced Sunday, following a wave of historic demonstrations against health restrictions and for more political freedoms, News.ro reported.

Residents of China’s financial center will once again be able to use public transport and visit certain public places, such as parks and tourist attractions, without having to present a negative PCR test result less than 48 hours ago, according to a press release on the website. social network WeChat.

Shanghai thus follows in the footsteps of many cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Chengdu, which on Saturday abolished the requirement to provide a negative test on public transport.

• Read also: China is changing its approach after protests in the country: anti-covid measures have been relaxed in Beijing and major cities

China’s anger at its hard line on the pandemic spilled into the streets last weekend, a mobilization on a scale not seen in decades.

China quickly tried to crack down on the movement, increasing its police presence on the streets and increasing its surveillance of social media.

• Read also: China: unprecedented demonstrations in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and other major cities / Chinese state media say nothing about “white paper protests” / What sparked the uprising

At the same time, several cities have begun easing restrictions, including abandoning daily mass testing, one of the pesky pillars of “zero COVID-19” that has been in place for nearly three years.

Local authorities in Beijing on Saturday canceled the real-name registration required to purchase cold and fever medicine.

President Xi Jinping, along with European Council President Charles Michel on a visit to Beijing on Thursday, defended easing policy in the face of Covid, stressing that from now on the “Covid in China” option is mainly Omicron, less deadly, paving the way for more flexibility in restrictions “, said a European official on condition of anonymity.

• Also read: Protests in China: President Xi Jinping agrees that Omicron’s coronavirus variant allows for “more flexibility”

Literature:

• China’s Unprecedented Demonstrations Failed: 7 This Year’s Protests From “Shanghai Voices of Despair” to “Beijing Bridge” and Clashes in Cantons
• Chinese authorities launch probe after weekend protests: ‘We’re desperate to delete our old chat messages’ / ‘The number of police officers is truly frightening’
• VIDEO Police arrested and beat a BBC correspondent who reported on the protests in Shanghai / Hallucinatory explanation of the incident by the Chinese authorities
• Sunak criticizes Xi Jinping’s regime in China: the famous “golden age” is over
• US official: Chinese leader Xi Jinping does not take Western vaccines against Covid-19