BEIJING: Beijing has abruptly dropped its decision to only allow vaccinated people inside crowded public venues two days after issuing the mandate, a rare recall in the face of what a prominent state media commentator has described as “power of public opinion”.
Beijing’s vaccine mandate, which was supposed to come into effect from July 11, was passed on Wednesday – the first in the country – according to which only those vaccinated could enter museums, cinemas halls, art galleries, sports and fitness venues among other crowded places.
Restaurants and public transport were exempt from the rule.
The city government withdrew that rule late on Thursday night. No explanation was offered.
“Beijing residents can enter the public spaces as long as they provide negative nucleic acid test results taken within 72 hours, have their temperature checked and scan their health codes for Covid-19 prevention and control,” a city government official was quoted as saying on Thursday night by the state-run China Daily newspaper.
“…People can choose to be unvaccinated even though the government encourages vaccination for those above the age of 3 and with no medical condition,” the report added.
Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of Global Times, a state-backed tabloid, said, according to the China Daily, that the “…government rescinding the vaccination requirement shows the power of the public opinion”.
The vaccine mandate had triggered discussion threads on China’s Twitter-equivalent, Weibo, where many expressed their unease about it.
“The rule was just ridiculous,” an unvaccinated Beijing theatre goer, surnamed Zhang, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, several provinces in China continued to fight localised Covid-19 outbreaks on Friday.
“Number of local Covid-19 cases in China began to decline in June, but a resurgence in the first week of July has led to an average of 325 cases being reported each day, covering 16 provinces, mainly in eastern China’s Anhui and Jiangsu provinces,” the national health commission (NHC) said on Friday.
The mainland on Friday reported 47 locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases, including 17 each in Shanghai and Anhui, for the day before, the NHC said.
As many as 331 local asymptomatic carriers were identified in nine provincial-level regions, the NHC added.
