(Yicai Global) Dec. 27 -- China will scrap quarantine requirements for international arrivals from Jan. 8 after downgrading the management level for Covid-19 to B from A, the highest.

The National Health Commission announced the change in a statement late yesterday, saying the current mandatory five-day quarantine period in a designated facility plus three days of isolation at home or in a hotel will be lifted.

China applies a classification level of A, B, and C to diseases, depending on their speed of transmission and harm level, and to the supervision, monitoring, and administration measures needed to control them.

The now lower management level does not mean a shaking off of all responsibility, said Liang Wannian, head of the expert team under the NHC's leading group on Covid-19 response.

The change aims to prevent and control Covid-19 in a more scientific and targeted manner and use resources more effectively to balance epidemic control and prevention and socioeconomic development, Liang added.

Covid-19 also has been officially renamed ‘novel coronavirus infection’ from ‘novel coronavirus pneumonia,’ as part of the disease’s downgrade, the NHC added.

Covid-19 is bound to exist for a long time, with a considerable decline in pathogenicity and gradual evolution into a common infectious respiratory disease, the NHC noted. Omicron has become the dominant strain worldwide. Despite the massive number of infections, over 90 percent of cases are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.

The NHC also said that China will boost the Covid-19 vaccination rate among the elderly, improve the preparation of drugs and testing reagents related to its treatment, increase investment in medical resources, and carry out various prevention and control measures such as isolation, lockdown, and quarantine.

Some 3.4 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in China so far, with over 90 percent of the population aged three years or more fully inoculated. Antiviral drugs to prevent and treat the disease are also in development.

Editor: Futura Costaglione