China sees steady increase in entry, exit trips after COVID-19 protocol adjustments

China has seen a steady increase in people entering and exiting the country since the downgraded management of COVID-19 took effect on Sunday, an immigration official said on Friday.

Liu Haitao, head of the National Immigration Administration's department of frontier inspection and management, said during a news briefing that about 490,000 entry or exit trips were made across China from Sunday to Thursday, up by 48.9 percent from before the adjustments to the COVID-19 control policies and at 26.2 percent of the level during the same period in 2019.

Trips made across seaports, land crossings and airports during the period all increased, with those at land crossings registering the highest increase rate of 53.3 percent, he said.

The daily number of entry trips averaged at 250,000, slightly higher than that of exit trips at 240,000, Liu added.

"As the Spring Festival holiday is drawing near, the peak for entry and exit trips is expected to occur soon," he said.

China lowered management of the COVID-19 disease on Sunday from Class A to Class B, dropping mandatory isolation and testing requirements for inbound travelers and scrapping limits on the number of capacity of international flights.

Wu Xi, director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Consular Affairs, said during the news conference that the principle at present is gradually normalizing cross-border trips of international travelers while taking necessary measures to prevent emerging variants overseas from affecting domestic responses to the virus.

She said that, so far, China has streamlined COVID-19 testing and visa application procedures, adding that more international flights and reopened ports are part of the measures to facilitate cross-border movement.