As predicted, Zero Covid has seen significant changes just a few weeks after the Party Congress. This is the central government promising to take action on local governments for being too draconian. It is quite a shift, and confirms how Zero Covid is not sustainable, and a virus such as Covid-19, cannot be kept at zero.
Many of the 20 Amendments to Zero Covid are just standard party language, here are a few that stood out:
—Amendment 2, for example, ends the tracking of “close contacts of close contacts” of an infected person. This may not sound like a big step, but it will greatly reduce the number of people being isolated and removed to quarantine facilities who aren’t even infected.
—Another amendment allowing home quarantine even in high-risk areas will further reduce the numbers in those facilities. Reducing the forceable removal of people from their homes.
—Amendment 16 specifically censures local government agencies for being heavy-handed in implementing “one size fits all” Zero Covid policies:
“[We shall] increase efforts to correct “one size fits all” approaches: local party committees and governments are strictly forbidden to close schools and classes, stop work and production, restrict traffic without approval, introduce unapproved lockdowns or remain in lockdowns for overly long periods. Other kinds of exaggerated behaviors such as random suspension of diagnosis and medical treatments will result in increased notification and public exposure, leading to severe punishment for those local authorities that cause serious consequences.”
