• 

In response to the protests in major Chinese cities, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan suggested further optimizing China's COVID-19 response, following protests against the strict measures pertaining to the zero-tolerance policy. 

"As the pathogenicity of the Omicron virus weakens, more people are vaccinated and experience in containing the virus is accumulated, the country is facing a new situation and new tasks in epidemic prevention and control," Sun said in a Wednesday statement published by the Chinese State Council.

Sun, furthermore, called on improving China's response to the pandemic, emphasizing on the importance of optimizing the policy regarding virus prevention, testing, quarantine measures, and population immunization. 

Chinese authorities have always, according to Sun, "put people's health and safety first" and tackled the pandemic with "a consistent strategy and flexible measures." 

Due to numerous local COVID-19 outbreaks, in addition to an epidemiological situation continuing to worsen in the country, the Chinese authorities implemented partial lockdowns in some cities while also obligating its citizens to run PCR tests daily. 

On Wednesday, China's administration of the economic zone of Zhengzhou Airport announced it will begin lifting some quarantine measures starting December 1. The economic zone is also home to the world’s largest iPhone assembly factory, the Foxconn plant, which is headquartered in Taiwan.

Last month, supervisors of the plant announced the establishment of a "Covid bubble" on its territory, meaning the establishment of fresh lockdowns in which measures to combat COVID-19 are reinforced while staff living on site refrained from leaving the zone. 

On November 24, restrictive measures were been tightened in Beijing and Shanghai, leading up to protests. China's zero-tolerance measures in dealing with Covid are some of the world's strictest.