Mainland authorities set out urgent plans to protect rural communities from Covid-19 on Friday as millions of city-dwellers planned holidays for the first time in years after the government eased anti-epidemic travel curbs.

There is particular concern about China's hinterland in the run up to local Lunar New Year holidays starting on January 22.

Rural areas are likely to be inundated with travellers returning to their hometowns and villages, which have had little exposure to the virus during the three years since the pandemic erupted.

The National Health Commission said it was ramping up vaccinations and building stocks of ventilators, essential drugs, and test kits in rural areas. It also advised travellers to reduce contact with elderly relatives.

While international borders remain largely shut, recent decisions to abandon testing prior to domestic travel and disable apps that tracked people's journey history have freed up people to move around the country.

Multiple cities across the mainland also opened new vaccination sites to encourage the public to take booster shots, the state-run Global Times newspaper reported.

Authorities on Friday reported 2,091 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases across the mainland – more than half of them in Guangdong. Figures of asymptomatic infections are no longer given.

Meanwhile, Macau announced on Friday that international arrivals, along with travellers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, can isolate at home for five days instead of in a mandated hotel, as authorities in the world's biggest gambling hub begin to unwind its Covid-19 rules. (Reuters/ Xinhua)