Many areas in China issued optimizations to existing COVID-19 control measures with less checking on negative test results, mostly concerning public transit and other public places.

Starting on Tuesday, residents in China's capital city Beijing can enter public places like malls, supermarkets and office buildings without checking recent COVID test results, though they still have to scan a QR code.

Other places lowering requirements for public transit include the municipalities of Tianjin and Chongqing and the cities of Wuhan, Shijiazhuang and Nanjing.

Permanent residents of a community can go back home without scanning a code, according to a notice from Beijing Municipal Government.

With that said, indoor places like bars, restaurants, gyms, schools and inpatient departments of hospitals will continue checking for negative test results within 48 hours. This is also true for Shanghai Municipality and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Shandong.

The two airports in Beijing also removed requirements for test results, with the exception of restaurants inside the airports.

In Aksu City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, regular testing schemes will be stopped for all people except special groups. Also, local residents no longer need to register to buy fever, cough, antiviral or antibody medicines.

Code scanning and mask mandate in public places will remain in place.

Similar actions around medicines were taken in Tianjin and Datong City in Shanxi Province.

With measures updated, these areas still require people to take proper protective measures and get vaccinated.

(Cover: A mall in Beijing, China, December 6, 2022. /CFP)