In most cases, asymptomatic and mild cases can be isolated at home when home-based protocols are met. They can also voluntarily opt to stay in centralized quarantine facilities. Public places should no longer require proof of negative nucleic acid testing results or check digital health codes of visitors except for elderly care and social welfare centers, medical facilities, nursery care centers and primary and middle schools. Cross-regional travellers are also waived from these requirements and are no longer required to take a test upon arrival. The changes were laid out in a circular, known as the “10 new measures”, released by the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism on Dec 7.

In the past three years, China has successively issued the ninth version of the prevention and control plan and the diagnosis and treatment plan, issued 20 optimization measures and further optimization measures, and effectively responded to the uncertainty of the epidemic situation with strategic stability and flexible measures.
In the past three years, China has had effective diagnosis and treatment technologies and drugs. Its medical treatment, pathogen detection, epidemiological investigation and other capabilities have continued to improve. Positive progress has been made in vaccine research and development and vaccination. The total vaccination rate of the whole population has exceeded 90%. The health awareness and health literacy of the people have significantly improved.
Ten new optimization measures have been formulated to further optimize the prevention and control of nucleic acid testing, management of positive infections and close contacts, delimitation and control of high-risk areas, vaccination for the elderly, medical and drug security for the masses, and school epidemic prevention and control and epidemic related safety.
The “New Ten Rules” is an important step towards a more precise and scientific epidemic prevention and control policy. Some experts pointed out that the prevalence of Omikjon variants and their evolutionary branches made the cost of maintaining the previous epidemic prevention policy too high, with little effect. Therefore, we need to constantly adjust and optimize the epidemic prevention policy, put more scarce medical resources to the people in need, and focus on vulnerable people.