Three years into the pandemic, China is moving slowly to align with a world that has largely opened up to live with COVID, making a major policy change last Wednesday after unprecedented protests against its stifling curbs.

It has dropped testing prior to many activities, limited quarantine and is preparing on Monday to deactivate a mobile app used to track the travel histories of a population of 1.4 billion people.

But with little exposure to a disease largely held in check until now, China is ill-prepared, analysts say, for a wave in infections that could heap pressure on its fragile health system and drive businesses to a halt.

"I'm really afraid of being infected, because the number of infected people is growing gradually in Beijing," an 18-year-old student, surnamed Tan, told Reuters as he walked along a street in the capital's upmarket Chaoyang district.

"But I must come out and run some errands today," he added. "I have been delaying going outside for three weeks due to COVID."

Elsewhere in the district, home to foreign embassies and corporate headquarters, about 80 people huddled in the cold outside a fever clinic as ambulances zipped past.

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