Under COVID-19 epidemic regulations, a health QR code has become a travel necessity in China. The code, which is based on big data and reflects an individual's risk level, can be scanned easily, eliminating tedious registration and inquiries.
Only users whose health QR codes are green are allowed to move or travel freely. Yellow and red represent medium and high-risk levels.
They were introduced as the pace of the resumption of production accelerated as the virus subsided.
ReadRead more: What is a Health QR Code?
Some complaints
But despite the many benefits of using this QR code, some obstacles have been encountered along the way.
Different codes used by different cities sometimes hampered cross-city flow as some regions did not implement data intercommunication.
What is more frustrating is that even if the data has been exchanged, the health code rules are often not uniform.
For example, the health QR codes in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, or Jingjinji Metropolitan Region, were finally approved by each other on April 19, providing a measure of convenience for people who work in and out of the region. Before that, the health QR codes in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region were used independently.
In addition, as the code is a new thing, some elderly people have been experiencing difficulties as their old mobile phones lack the appropriate functions.
Take Ms Bao's mother, who lives in a residential area in Wuchang District, Wuhan City. She cannot go out because she does not have a health QR code on her mobile phone. Ms Bao said that because the application for the health code needs to have a WeChat account. WeChat needs to conduct real-name authentication and this requires the binding of bank card with the user's real name. A high proportion of the elderly are used to using passbooks to manage their assets, which led to problems with Ms Bao's mother's application for a health code.
Different communities in Wuhan City have adopted different measures to solve this problem.
"Old people are physically vulnerable," said Li Li, deputy secretary of a community in Jianghan District, Wuhan City. "Under normal circumstances, the elderly with special needs, such as going to the bank to withdraw money, buy medicine, see a doctor can go out, there are no special things. The staff still do not recommend the elderly frequent access to the community."
The residents can get in and out with a green health QR code, but the elderly account for 25 percent of the community, Li said most of whom do not use smartphones, so the community made a temporary access certificate for the elderly, valid for one day.
Some solutions
For the elderly and children who are temporarily unable to get a health QR code, some cities have issued different documents and methods to protect individual travel rights. For example, in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, the elderly and children can apply for paper-based health cards from community (village) prevention and control teams according to the document requirements of the Office of the Shandong provincial epidemic prevention and control headquarters.
For example, an elderly couple in Shanghai was blocked from the market because their mobile phones were too old to provide a health code and a police officer used his mobile phone for the elderly and let them take photos to save.
Besides, in the new version of the health inquiry software for epidemic prevention in Beijing, a function of "checking by others" has been introduced, so that health information can be found even if people forget their mobile phones.
Of course, there is room for improvement in the health code itself. At present, the risk of re-entering of the COVID-19 epidemic is still present, and the degree of strict control at ports varies from place to place. Because a person with a green health code may be at risk if they come into contact with an asymptomatic infected person, controls are necessary.
(Cover image from VCG)