China disables its travel tracking app
China announced on Monday the withdrawal of the app used to track the movements of residents and ensure that they were not in an affected area, a new symbol of the exit from the zero COVID-19 strategy.
Called the “Movement Map”, it was based on the telephone signal and allowed its users to prove to their interlocutor (hotel, office building, etc.) the places they were in during the last seven days.
The app displayed a list of cities, and even districts, that the person had visited. If none were classified as “high risk” (with a large number of cases), the app displayed a green arrow, signifying authorized passage.
The “Travel Map”, under the responsibility of the central government, will be deactivated from midnight on Tuesday, more than two years after its launch, according to an official statement.
This decision comes less than a week after China announced a sudden and radical easing of health measures — a very clear departure from its “zero COVID-19” policy, designed to avoid any deaths.
On Wednesday, she notably announced the end of large-scale lockdowns and the cessation of the systematic placement of people who tested positive in quarantine centers — establishments that have been criticized for their highly variable comfort.
Although the official number of new cases has fallen in recent days, it does not reflect the reality of the current epidemic wave.
Because it only takes into account PCR tests carried out by laboratories and not self-tests carried out in the privacy of one’s home, which most residents do not declare.
One of the leading figures in China’s fight against COVID-19, respiratory disease specialist Zhong Nanshan, indicated on Sunday that the Omicron variant was now “spreading rapidly” in the country.
The “Travel Map”, a national application often used for interprovincial travel, operated in parallel with local applications, which remain the main ones used daily to enter restaurants, shops and buildings.
“Ciao ciao! All this signals the end of an era. And the beginning of a whole new one…,” reacted a user of the social network Weibo on Monday, in tune with the general tone of the comments.
Others wonder what will happen to the mass of data collected by the application.
“I hope there will be ways and measures to disconnect and delete all of this,” one user emphasized. AFP
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