Impacts of the ‘3-layered Quarantine Zone’ on Compartmented Urban Spaces

The Coronavirus pandemic primarily affected urban populations due to its high transmissibility, constant mutations, and the unavailability of effective medication by far. As such condition continues, prevention and control interventions are still required in urban spaces worldwide. In China, the national Zero-COVID policy and stringent protocols have been implemented, and its subsequent measures managed to contain the disease in the second half of 2020 and most of 2021; however, not without a toll on people’s lifestyles, physical and mental health, as well as the economy. In 2022, the Chinese central government proposed a pilot policy called “Community Prevention and Control Measures” to be implemented in several cities. The CPCM recommends three zone levels, with different levels of control (i.e., prevention zone, control zone, and close zone). As some of the recently developed Chinese urban spaces are extremely compartmented in the form of gated communities, responding to regulations and type of urban structure, this urban form easily adapts to the required closed quarantine boundaries. This chapter describes the implementation of the 3-layered policy in one of the pilot cities, i.e., Ningbo, China. This study examines the potential mobility of the policy by analysing its mutation and its impact on citizens. COVID-19 policies can be dynamic and often under constant changes according to different contexts. Using a qualitative research method, this chapter explores the implications of the policy on citizens and its mutability as the pandemic shifts. In conclusion, the applicability of the CPCM can be only effective for immediate response to initial cases in highly compartmented spaces, such as gated communities and urban blocks, and where strict control policies (to prevent the movement of people) are sanctioned by the government and enforced by the authorities. Flexible boundaries suggest a balance between compartmentation and openness in future urban development.