(Beijing) China announced on Monday the withdrawal of the application used to trace 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 “Travel map”, it was based on the telephone signal and allowed its users to prove to their interlocutor (hotel, office building, etc.) the places in which they were during the last seven days.
The application displayed the list of cities, even districts in which the person had been. If none were classified as “high risk” (with a large number of cases), the application displayed a green arrow, synonymous with authorized passage.
The “Travel Map”, under the responsibility of the central government, will be deactivated from midnight Tuesday morning, more than two years after its launch, according to an official press release.
The move comes less than a week after China announced a sudden and drastic easing of health measures — a stark departure from its “zero COVID-19” policy, intended to prevent any deaths.
On Wednesday, she notably announced the end of large-scale confinements and the end of the systematic placements of people who tested positive in quarantine centers – decried establishments, with very variable comfort.
While 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 the PCR tests carried out by the laboratories or the self-tests carried out in the privacy of one’s home, which most residents do not declare.
One of China’s leading figures in the fight against COVID-19, respiratory disease specialist Zhong Nanshan, said Sunday that the Omicron variant is now “spreading rapidly” in the country.
The “Travel Map”, a national application often used for inter-province travel, worked in parallel with the local applications, which remain the main ones used on a daily basis to enter restaurants, stores and buildings.
“Ciao ciao! All of this signals the end of an era. And the beginning of a whole new…”, reacted Monday a user of the social network Weibo, 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 this”, underlined a user.