Pandemic prevention workers wait for the start of their shift to look after buildings where residents do home quarantine, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue in Beijing on December 8, 2022. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)





A woman has her routine COVID-19 throat swab at a testing site despite authorities starting to ease some of the anti-virus controls in Beijing, Thursday, December 8, 2022. China is the last major country still trying to stamp out transmission of the virus while many nations switch to trying to live with it. As they lift restrictions, Chinese officials have also shifted to talking about the virus as less threatening – a possible effort to prepare people for a similar switch. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)





A security guard takes a nap on a sofa placed near the exercise equipment in Beijing, Wednesday, December 7, 2022. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)





Visitors wearing masks watch as a resident walks on all four limbs as a form of exercise in the Temple of Heaven park in Beijing, Thursday, December 8, 2022. In a move that caught many by surprise, China announced a potentially major easing of its rigid “zero-COVID” restrictions, without formally abandoning the policy altogether. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)





Pandemic prevention workers gather before their shift to look after buildings where residents do home quarantine, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue in Beijing on December 8, 2022. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)





Aerial photo shows many citizens enjoying the fun of skating on the natural ice field formed by wetlands around Songhua River in Harbin City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on December 8, 2022. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)





People walk on a street as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue in Shanghai, China on December 8, 2022. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)





A man watches a Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) C919 aircraft, China's first domestically produced large passenger jet, landing at Hongqiao International Airport after it is formally handed over to China Eastern Airlines in Shanghai on December 9, 2022. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)





Health workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) carry barricades inside a residential community that just opened after a lockdown due to Covid-19 coronavirus restrictions in Beijing on December 9, 2022. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)





People wearing masks walk on an overpass at Lujiazui financial district, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue in Shanghai, China on December 9, 2022. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)





An elderly man on a stretcher is wheeled from the fever clinic at a hospital in Beijing, Friday, December 9, 2022. China began implementing a more relaxed version of its strict “zero COVID” policy on Thursday amid steps to restore normal life, but also trepidation over a possible broader outbreak once controls are eased. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)





A resident carries away medicine bought at a pharmacy in Beijing, Friday, December 9, 2022. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)





Epidemic control workers wear PPE as they ride on the back of a three wheeler on their way to disinfect an epidemic area on December 9, 2022 in Beijing, China. As part of a 10 point directive, Chinas government announced Wednesday that people with COVID-19 who have mild or no symptoms will be permitted to quarantine at home instead of at a government facility, testings requirements are reduced, people are permitted to buy over the counter medications, and local officials can no longer lock down entire neighbourhoods or cities, a major shift in its zero COVID policy. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)





Pandemic control workers in protective suits sit in a neighbourhood that used to be under lockdown, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue, in Beijing, China on December 10, 2022. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)





An elderly woman on a stretcher is wheeled into the fever clinic at a hospital in Beijing, Sunday, December 11, 2022. Facing a surge in COVID-19 cases, China is setting up more intensive care facilities and trying to strengthen hospitals as Beijing rolls back anti-virus controls that confined millions of people to their homes, crushed economic growth and set off protests. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)





A woman rides past protective suits and household trash inside yellow trash bags marked as medical waste gathered outside at a hotel entrance door in Beijing, Sunday, December 11, 2022. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)





A woman collects COVID-19 antigen kits from a worker at a pharmacy in Beijing, Sunday, December 11, 2022. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)





A man wearing a gas mask walks on a street in Beijing, Tuesday, December 13, 2022. Some Chinese universities say they will allow students to finish the semester from home in hopes of reducing the potential of a bigger COVID-19 outbreak during the January Lunar New Year travel rush. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)





A delivery worker rides on his bike loaded with customers' online order groceries on a street in Beijing, Monday, December 12, 2022. China will drop a travel tracing requirement as part of an uncertain exit from its strict “zero-COVID” policies that have elicited widespread dissatisfaction. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)





Children stand next to an image of a Chinese space suit displayed on a screen, at the InnoTech Expo in Hong Kong, China on December 13, 2022. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)