Nov 29 Reuters The yuan jumped against the dollar on Tuesday ahead of a COVID19 press briefing in China that is spurring hopes of a potential easing in the country39;s strict pandemic restrictions following an unprecedented episode of unrest.

The offshore yuan surged 1.2 to 7.1607 a dollar after a statement from the Chinese government said experts from the National Health Commission and two other agencies involved in disease control and prevention would speak at a COVID press conference at 0700 GMT on Tuesday.

The onshore yuan was up 0.66 at 7.1594 per dollar.

People are getting quite excited about some sort of reopening, said Alvin Tan, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

The U.S. dollar, which rallied in the previous session on mounting worries over China39;s COVID situation, pared some of its overnight gains and moved broadly lower.

The Aussie , often used as a liquid proxy for the yuan, rose 0.8 to 0.6708. The kiwi similarly gained 0.9 to 0.6214.

Sterling strengthened 0.4 to 1.2007.

Police on Monday stopped and searched people at the sites of weekend protests in Shanghai and Beijing, after crowds there and in other Chinese cities demonstrated against the country39;s strict zeroCOVID policy.

Protests have spread to at least a dozen cities around the world in a show of solidarity.

Elsewhere, the euro was up 0.4 at 1.0382, after surging to a fivemonth peak of 1.0497 overnight.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said overnight that…