China eases Covid measures, trims quarantine time by two days

China’s Covid outbreak is at its worst in about half a year. Residents of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, are pictured here lining up for regular virus testing in their community on Nov. 10, 2022.

The time for international travelers in China was reduced by two days.

Instead of being forced to stay at a centralized facility for seven days after arriving in the country, travelers will be required to stay for five days.

The report said that the new time period applied to close contacts of Covid infections in China.

China will no longer track people who are not close to Covid infections. People who were connected to those close contacts were subject to Covid restrictions previously.

The number of regional risk designation was reduced to two from three, according to the report.

The new measures emphasized homeQuarantine instead of centralizedQuarantine

A policy that resulted in the number of international flights being reduced was ended by the measures.

There was a proposal to set up a bubble for business people entering China. The report said that people entering the bubble from China need to bevaccinated.

Shortly after the announcement, the Hang Seng index soared and was up seven percent, building on an earlier rally that followed U.S. data indicating relief from a recent surge in inflation.

China Eastern Airlines and Cathay Pacific both gained in the afternoon.

MGM China, Wynn Macau, and Sands China all saw their share prices go up.

The rest of the world has shifted away from China's strict zero- Covid policy.

The implementation of Beijing's emphasis on what it calls "dynamic zero- Covid" has caused a lot of uncertainty.

The number of Covid infections nationwide has gone up in the last few days.

Jihye Lee worked for CNBC.