With Covid restrictions finally loosening, China is now bracing for a sharp rise in infections in the coming weeks.

As many Chinese embraced new freedoms after the country dropped key parts of its tough zero-COVID regime, there was mounting concern that a virus that had largely been kept in check could soon run wild.

Many in China had been eager for Beijing to start to align its rigid virus prevention measures with the rest of the world, which has largely opened up in an effort to live with the disease.

Those frustrations boiled over into widespread protests recently.

Without saying it was a response to those protests, some cities and regions began relaxing COVID controls, in moves that heralded a nationwide loosening of the rules unveiled by the National Health Commission.

The NHC said infected people with mild symptoms can now quarantine at home and it dropped the need for testing and health status checks on mobile apps for a variety of activities including travelling around the country.