Chinese cities ease COVID curbs as virus keeps spreading - Reuters

China's COVID policies have stifled everything from domestic consumption, to factory output and global supply chains, and have inflicted severe mental stress on hundreds of millions of people.

"Finally, we can slowly return to our normal lives," said Lili, 41, who works for a chain of restaurants in Guangzhou that were allowed to reopen on Thursday.

Some communities now require less frequent testing and are allowing close contacts of infected people to quarantine at home, according to state media, measures expected to be rolled out nationwide in coming days.

Chengdu and Tianjin, among China's biggest cities, announced they would not require subway users to show negative COVID tests from Friday, another relaxation of a curb imposed to stop transmission of the virus in crowded public spaces.

Some communities in Beijing and elsewhere have already allowed close contacts of people carrying the virus to quarantine at home, while some shopping malls in the capital reopened from Thursday.

Several testing booths in the area have stopped operating and the number of people getting tested had dropped by up to 30%, a staff member said.

Some areas in Guangzhou resumed dine-in services, and residents are no longer asked to present negative PCR tests to enter, state media reported.

The city also scrapped a rule that only people with a negative COVID test could buy fever medication over the counter, a policy aimed at preventing people with COVID from hiding their illness.

In nearby Shenzhen, some people will be allowed to quarantine at home.