by Brenda Goh and Martin Quin Pollard
BEIJING (Reuters) – Two major Chinese metropolises, Guangzhou and Chongqing, announced on Wednesday an easing of measures to fight against COVID-19 in the aftermath of clashes between protesters and police in Guangzhou illustrating the tensions persisting after a week -end of protest against the “zero COVID” policy across the country.
This protest movement, which led to rallies in Beijing, Shanghai and many other cities over the weekend, is unprecedented since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
In Chongqing, in the southwest of the country, contact cases of people with COVID-19 will now be able under certain conditions to observe their period of isolation at home, and no longer in special accommodation centers, said a representative. of the municipality.
A similar measure was announced in Canton, a major industrial center near Hong Kong.
The authorities of several districts of this city of 19 million inhabitants have also announced the lifting of certain containment measures. Face-to-face classes in schools in the Conghua district can thus resume while restaurants and other businesses will reopen.
Areas of the city classified as “high risk” will nevertheless remain closed.
The municipality of Zhengzhou, where there is a large Foxconn iPhone assembly plant for Apple, for its part announced an “orderly” resumption of activities, in particular in supermarkets, sports halls and restaurants.
(with Eduardo Baptista and Yew Lun Tian in Beijing, written by Marius Zaharia, John Geddie and Greg Torode, French version Laetitia Volga and Bertrand Boucey, edited by Kate Entringer and Matthieu Protard)
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