BEIJING/HONG KONG: People queued outside fever clinics at Chinese hospitals for Covid-19 checks on Monday, a new sign of the rapid spread of symptoms after authorities began dismantling an apparatus they used to surveil residents and curtail movement.
Three years into the pandemic, China is acting to align with a world that has largely reopened to live with Covid, making a major policy change last Wednesday after unprecedented protests.
It has dropped mandatory testing prior to many public activities, reined in quarantine and by early Tuesday will have deactivated a state-mandated mobile app used to track the travel histories of a population of 1.4 billion people.
The app that identified travellers to Covid-stricken areas will shut down at midnight on Monday, according to a notice on its official WeChat account.
The app has collected a huge amount of personal and sensitive information and the data should be deleted in a timely manner, Liu Xingliang, a researcher at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, was quoted by state radio as saying.
When such apps were launched three years ago, critics expressed concern that they could be used to for mass surveillance and social control.
In Shanghai, China’s largest city which endured a two-month lockdown earlier this year, authorities said that from Tuesday none of its districts would be considered high-risk, meaning the end for now of measures that trapped people inside their homes. Nationwide, authorities continue to recommend mask-wearing and vaccinations, particularly for the elderly.
But with little exposure to a disease kept largely 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 grind businesses to a halt.
Lily Li, who works at a toy company in the southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou, said several employees, as well as staff at suppliers and distributors, had been infected and were at home isolating.
“Basically everybody is now simultaneously rushing to buy rapid antigen test kits but have also somewhat given up on the hope that COVID can be contained,” she said. “We have accepted that we will have to get Covid at some point anyway.” — Reuters
