China announced on Monday the end of the use of an application that tracks user movements, at a time when it is rapidly dismantling the ‘covid zero’ strategy, which has generated strong popular discontent.
As of midnight this Monday, the application, called “Registro de Itinerarios”, will stop working, so the trips of residents will no longer be tracked.
The application limited internal travel within the country. Anyone with registered medium and high risk areas was required to comply with a quarantine period upon arrival in another city.
This application is part of a set of these tools created within the framework of the Chinese strategy of ‘zero cases’ of Covid-19. Each city and province also has its own health code, an app that records PCR test results and is used to access public or residential places.
The user must first scan the QR code, a two-dimensional version of the barcode, placed at the entrance of all buildings, as well as on public transport or taxis.
Several cities are also waiving the use of that code.
The Chinese government announced last week the end of several of the most restrictive measures to prevent Covid-19, including mass testing, quarantine in designated facilities, for positive cases and direct contacts, and the use of apps. contact tracing.
This came after protests in several cities in China against the ‘zero cases’ strategy of Covid-19. Some of the protesters chanted slogans against Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Communist Party, something unprecedented in the country for several decades.
Although received with relief, the end of the ‘Covid zero’ strategy also raises concerns.
With 1.4 billion people, China is the most populous country in the world. The ‘zero cases’ strategy means that the vast majority of the Chinese population lacks natural immunity. Beijing has also refused to import messenger RNA vaccines, considered more effective than inoculations developed by local pharmaceutical companies Sinopharm and Sinovac.
The removal of restrictions could unleash an unprecedented ‘wave’ of cases this winter, quickly overloading the country’s health system, according to projections prepared by the consultancy Wigram Capital Advisors, which provided projection models to several governments in the region, during the pandemic.
One million Chinese could die of covid-19 during the next winter months, according to the same projection.
Experts warned, however, that there is still a chance the Communist Party could reverse decisions and reimpose restrictions, should a large-scale outbreak occur.
Last week’s announcement gave local governments room to impose their own regulations. Most restaurants in Beijing, for example, continue to require a negative test done within the previous 48 hours, and the rules are even stricter for government buildings.
Source: TSF
