to arrests as China seeks to end widespread Covid-19 protests

China’s western Xinjiang region has loosened some Covid restrictions in its capital Urumqi, where a deadly fire in the city blamed on virus controls has sparked protests around the country.

Ten people died in Thursday's fire. Urumqi has been under strict restrictions since August and people have been confined to their homes for weeks on end. Internet users have been demanding to know whether residents had been able to exit the building during the blaze.

From Tuesday residents of Urumqi, which has a population of four million, can only travel around on buses to run errands within their home districts, officials said at a press conference today according to AFP news agency.

Certain essential businesses in “low-risk” areas can also apply to restart operations at 50% capacity, while public transport and flights will start “resuming in an orderly manner”, officials also said.

As we've been reporting, the origins of these protests are rooted in China's strict "zero-Covid" policy, which has kept millions under intermittently stringent restrictions for nearly three years.

But what are the rules as they stand?

China is no longer imposing a national lockdown, but the central government is telling local authorities to impose strict lockdowns in their areas when they detect a Covid-19 outbreak - even if only a handful of cases are found.

It is one of the toughest anti-Covid regimes in the world and these local lockdowns last until no new infections are reported.

Tens of millions of people have been living under some kind of lockdown since the latest wave of cases emerged.

Such is the scale of these measures that the Chinese government website listing streets and buildings with outbreaks (which also classifies them as low or high risk) runs to over 120 pages - with tens of thousands of places under sever restrictions.

Mass testing is carried out in places where cases have been reported. People found to have Covid-19 are isolated at home or placed under quarantine at a government-supervised facility.

Businesses and schools are closed, and so are all shops except for those selling food.

However, some rules have been relaxed. Infected people are now kept in isolation for only eight days - five days at an isolation centre, plus three days of isolation at home - rather than 10 days.