Aside from high-risk areas, regular life resumes from November 30, 2021 in Zhengzhou, in Central China's Henan Province. Photo: from IC.

Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan Province, home to more than 13 million people reopens supermarkets and cinemas, taxis and subways on Wednesday. Residents can choose to receive COVID-19 testing based on their own needs.
 
Aside from high-risk areas, regular life will resume from Wednesday, the Zhengzhou government announced, saying the high-risk areas will default to low-risk if no infections are reported for five consecutive days and residents in the areas are able to provide a negative COVID-19 test result taken on the fifth day.

Essential businesses located in low-risk areas, including food markets, supermarkets and barbershops, as well as cinemas, libraries, stadiums will be reopened. Entertainment venues including karaoke bars, beauty salons, internet cafés and chess rooms will reopen within the week

Buses, the subway, taxis and ride-hailing services will also be returned to unrestricted operation. 

People who need to enter a public venue or use public transport need a negative test result within 48 hours, the Zhengzhou government said, adding that seniors who stay at home, students who take daily online classes, and employees who work from home do not need to take the test.

The relaxation of testing followed an earlier similar measure in Guangzhou. Some communities in Beijing also narrowed the scale of those who need to take nucleic acid tests, so that residents without social activities don't need to take daily tests

Zhengzhou's anti-epidemic situation has attracted much public attention as some of its enterprises have been effected, such as Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant, a major production base for iPhone products. 

Last month, Foxconn issued three notices consecutively to its factory workers at the Zhengzhou park after it was hit by a COVID-19 outbreak, saying that arrangements and security protection measures have been made for employees who volunteer to stay in the park and those who wish to return home. 

Foxconn's Zhengzhou park launched a new round of recruitment on Tuesday, welcoming former employees back to work as production order gradually resumed amid a continuously better-off local anti-epidemic situation, 21jingji.com reported. 

Since the start of November, Zhengzhou has gradually lift COVID-19 temporary control in low-risk regions aiming to resume normal life. More than 90 percent of enterprises in Zhengzhou have maintained production during this latest flare-up of infections, Zhengzhou officials said at a press conference on November 3.