Commission opposes reckless restrictions

Local governments should not recklessly impose additional COVID-19 prevention and control measures on people returning from other regions during the Spring Festival holiday, the National Health Commission said on Saturday in response to complaints filed by recent returnees.

Commission spokesman Mi Feng said some people have complained of difficulties in traveling back to their hometowns for the seven-day holiday, starting Monday, because of extra COVID-19 curbs imposed by local authorities.

Such requirements have included restricting the return of people from low-risk areas and requiring them to undergo centralized isolation at their own expense.

Mi told a news briefing that the State Council's joint prevention and control mechanism has examined related issues and ordered some local governments to rectify them.

He stressed that during the holiday, local governments must refrain from recklessly banning people from returning, expanding movement restrictions, or applying policies designed for medium- or high-risk areas to places where risks are low.

In addition, local authorities should not require people returning from low-risk areas to turn back or go through centralized quarantine, nor should they extend the length of isolation periods at will.

A special message board has been set up on the home page of the commission's website. "Anyone faced with additional restrictions on their way back home can leave messages here, and we'll take it seriously," Mi said.

He Qinghua, an official with the commission's Disease Prevention and Control Bureau, said virus control policies should be applied precisely so that people's needs to reunite with their families during the holiday can be satisfied, adding that government departments or institutions that violate the rules will be identified publicly.

Spring Festival is the most important holiday of the year for Chinese people, who usually return to their hometowns for family reunions, and many people welcomed the commission's response to public complaints.

Ma Li, who lives in Jiangsu province, drove two hours to her husband's hometown in the countryside last week and plans to spend the holiday with in-laws.

"The trip means a lot to us because it is the first Spring Festival since we married," she said. "It is reassuring to know that local authorities are barred from slapping unnecessary travel restrictions on us."

Xu Hejian, a spokesman for Beijing's municipal government, told a news conference on Saturday that people do not need to worry about being denied reentry to Beijing after the holiday.

While travelers from areas with recent local infections or land port cities are restricted or discouraged from visiting the capital, Xu said other people will be allowed into Beijing after presenting a negative nucleic acid test result taken within 48 hours before arrival and a green health code.

He, from the National Health Commission, said swift responses have brought several domestic outbreaks driven by the Delta or Omicron variants of the novel coronavirus under control.

The Delta outbreak concentrated in Beijing's Fengtai district has been effectively contained, but local virus control work is still at a crucial stage, he said.

On Sunday, China reported 54 domestic confirmed infections for Saturday, including 20 cases in Beijing, 19 in Zhejiang province and eight in Heilongjiang province, according to the commission.