As of the October 31, 94.9 percent (1.329 billion) of Chinese citizens have already applied for and received the social security card, the country's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Friday.

Since the first digital social security card was put into use in April 2018, it has become popular due to its reliability and increasingly rich features. The social service functions in it have been incrementally launched, such as social rights record sheet, pension budget and the exemption of overseas social securities.

In February of this year, the digital social security card urgently launched some new functions such as epidemic prevention and health information codes to help "no-touch service" during the epidemic.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security also stated that 417 digital social security card service channels have been opened, and the online services can be easily obtained through commonly used apps or small programs. 

These channels include 25 national channels, such as the national government service platform, digital social security card applet, Alipay and WeChat etc, as well as more than 300 human and social departments and other government department channels, and more than 100 banks and social channels.

The authority also stated that more local business services are also generally loaded in various places. For example, digital social security card mobile payment has been supported in 224 prefectures and cities in 27 provinces for medical treatment and drug purchase settlement; 22 cities have opened UnionPay travel codes, and electronic social security cards can also be used for travel.

Experts said that digital social security cards based on mobile phones are an inevitable choice to meet the requirements of the Internet era. It is estimated that more than 500 million people will have digital social security cards in 2021.