The Chinese National Health Commission's (NHC) expert Liang Wannian stated on Wednesday that the country is "close to returning" to living conditions as they were before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the agency's press conference, NHC's vice-head Wang Hesheng insisted that infection and death rates recorded in China remain the lowest in the world. Meanwhile, Wannian added that health authorities are working on improving vaccination rates in an effort to fully overcome the pandemic.
Prior to holding a press conference, the NHC announced the easing of certain measures against COVID-19, which included narrowing high-risk areas to a specific object rather than entire communities, removing mass polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, and prohibiting business suspension in zones deemed non-high-risk.
