Shuli Ren, Columnist

China’s Great Leap Forward Into Herd Immunity

Is it going to work? A first-person look at how Shanghai went from exuberance to empty streets with its Covid reopening.

January 3, 2023 at 7:00 PM UTC

By Shuli Ren

Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. A former investment banker, she was a markets reporter for Barron’s. She is a CFA charterholder.

Pedestrians in Shanghai’s financial district on Jan. 3.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

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In late November, I bit the bullet and took a flight from Hong Kong, where I work, back to my hometown of Shanghai. For months, there were rumors of China easing its Covid Zero policy. But I could no longer wait. It’s been three years since I last saw my aging parents.

I was just finishing a mandatory eight-day quarantine when China rebooted its Covid policy on Dec. 7. What ensued was a whirlwind of changes. Gone were the 48-hour negative PCR test results needed to enter restaurants or gyms. The Shanghai government also axed all its contact-tracing tools. People were no longer required to scan their health apps to enter subways or shopping malls.