Flingpord

  Visitors wear masks as they visit the Temple of Heaven park in Beijing, December 8, 2022. China announced a potentially major easing of its rigid "zero-COVID" rules without formally abandoning the policy altogether. (Ng Han Guan/AP) Baoding, a city in China’s northern Hebei province near Beijing, made internet site Weibo’s hot search chart this week. The viral hashtag:  #BaodingOutbreak# . China is  scrapping draconian COVID-19 restrictions  following countrywide demonstrations, some violent, demanding an end to the “zero COVID” policy, with its onerous testing, lengthy lockdowns and forced quarantines. On December 7, China’s health authority  sidelined  mandatory COVID-19 tests and green “health codes” before anyone could enter most public venues. It also limited harsh lockdowns. Although many in China cheered the return to more normal times,  fears also grew  about a flood of new infections. In Baoding, population 9 million, evidence emerged t...