COVID strategies optimized

Unnecessary restrictions at grassroots to be removed as soon as possible

Authorities will accelerate the lifting of unnecessary restrictions put in place after the recent Omicron-fueled outbreaks to reduce the disease control strategies' economic fallout and other resulting "inconveniences", a senior health official said on Tuesday, amid a surge of public displeasure toward the distorted enforcement of containment policies.

National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said local governments are racing to make "concrete and detailed" plans after central authorities unveiled the"20 measures" on optimizing the country's COVID-19 strategies this month.

"Based on contact tracing and nucleic acid test results, local authorities must make a precise judgment over the designation of risky areas, and remove all needless restrictions as soon as possible to minimize the inconvenience caused to the public," he told a news conference in Beijing.