Residents purchase snacks at a night market in Chongqing, China, on December 14.
Hong Kong CNN  — 

The sprawling Chinese metropolis of Chongqing announced Sunday that public sector employees testing positive for Covid-19 can go to work “as normal,” a remarkable turnaround for a city that only weeks ago had been in the throes of a mass lockdown.

The move comes as China continues to quickly unravel its once-stringent zero-Covid policy, with local governments across the nation relaxing costly rules around testing, quarantine and other pandemic policies amid a widespread economic downturn.