Focus on Arts and Ecology

February 3, 2023 

Although the pandemic is yet to end, regular life is returning. The overall rate of COVID-19 infections during the Spring Festival, from January 21 to 27, has been low, and cases were in steady decline in various places across China, said Mi Feng, spokesperson of the National Health Commission (NHC). 

Latest numbers:

· The number of hospitalized patients peaked at 1.63 million on January 5 and then declined, falling to 248,000 on January 23

· The number of critical cases in hospitals fell back to 36,000 on January 23. It peaked on January 5, totaling 128,000

· The number of deaths from COVID-19 infection in medical institutions reached a daily peak of 4,273 on January 4 and continued to decline thereafter, falling back to 896 on January 23, with a 79 percent decrease

· As of January 13, 2023, over 90 percent of Chinese people over the age of 60 have been fully vaccinated, according to data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

More updates:

· Cross-border travel between the Chinese mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) will resume fully on February 6, dropping existing quotas

· Starting from Monday, the mainland will no longer cap the number of passengers arriving from the two SARs via land ports in Guangdong Province

· Passengers arriving from the regions via land ports in Guangdong Province will also no longer need to make reservations, and group tours will be resumed from Monday

· Inbound passengers do not need to provide negative test proof if they haven't traveled overseas over the previous seven days

· Beijing to conduct COVID-19 antibody survey to optimize measures

· China approved two domestically developed drugs for COVID-19 patients with mild and moderate symptoms

(Sources: China Report)