Currently, several countries have been using technological means to help disseminate news about the coronavirus (COVID-19), as well as several applications to help fight the disease, and China apparently found yet another way to fight the disease.
Imagine your daily routine totally dependent on a smartphone app. Leaving home, taking public transport, going to work, entering cafes, restaurants and Shopping centers, each movement, dictated by the color shown on the screen. Green: you are free to proceed, if you present Orange or Red: you are prevented from entering.
This is the reality of hundreds of millions of people in China since the middle of the coronavirus crisis, and it may still remain so in the near future, as the country struggles to recover. Relying on mobile technology and big data, the Chinese government used a color-based “health code” system to control people's movements and contain the spread of the coronavirus. Automatically generated quick response codes, usually shortened to codes QR, are attributed to citizens as an indicator of their health status.
How does it work?
O Chinese government asked for help from the country's two Internet giants - Alibaba e Tencent - to host health code systems in their popular smartphone apps. The mobile payment app from Alibaba, Alipay, and the messaging application Tencent, Wechat, are ubiquitous in China, each used by hundreds of millions of people. Placing integrity codes on these platforms means easy access for many.
To obtain a health code, citizens need to fill in their personal information, including name, national identity number or passport number and telephone number on an enrollment page. They are asked to report their travel history and have contacted any confirmed or suspected patient. COVID-19 in the last 14 days. They also need to check the boxes for any symptoms they may have: fever, fatigue, dry cough, stuffy nose, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea. After the information is verified by the authorities, each user will receive a QR code in red, orange or green.
Users with a red code need to be quarantined or self-quarantined for fourteen days, users with an orange code are quarantined for seven days, while users with a green code can move freely around the city, according to a statement. by the Hangzhou authorities.
