Wuhan virus 2020

[Jimbuna]

China to deactivate national Covid tracking app

China has announced it will deactivate a phone app that has tracked people's movements during the pandemic.

The national app, which has been operational for three years, will go offline at the end of Monday.

It is the latest policy change that signals Beijing is abandoning its controversial zero-Covid strategy.

The move is highly symbolic but will not have a huge impact on people's daily lives because of the local apps still in use in cities across China.

The state-run Communications Itinerary Card app, which uses phone signals to track whether someone has travelled to an area considered to be high-risk, was seen as a central part of China's zero-Covid policy.

People were required to enter phone numbers in the app in order to produce a green arrow indicating they were able to travel between provinces and enter events.

Now travel between provinces has been eased with the removal of Covid-prevention restrictions, the national app has been deemed to be obsolete by officials.

Many social media users in China have welcomed the app's retirement.

But it is only one of several tracking apps that have governed everyday life in China, with many people still using scanning systems run by their city or province to access local amenities and public buildings.

The policy change is symbolic for a nation which is turning away from its controversial zero-Covid strategy following widespread protests in several cities.

Recent unrest was triggered by a fire in a high-rise block in the western Xinjiang region that killed 10 people in November, with long-running restrictions blamed for hampering the rescue effort.

Following policy changes, people with Covid can now isolate at home rather than in state facilities, and there has been a broad relaxation of mass testing.

China is now experiencing a surge in Covid cases, with authorities in Beijing saying more than 22,000 patients had visited hospitals across the city on Sunday - 16 times the number a week earlier.

China reported 8,626 domestic cases on Sunday, but with testing no longer widespread the numbers are believed to be much higher.

Despite its loosening of measures, China is still regarded as having some of the most hard-line Covid restrictions in the world.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63941512

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

China Covid: Hospitals under strain in wave of infections

By Stephen McDonell
BBC News, Beijing

China's hospitals are already under so much pressure, following the country's rapid 180-degree shift in Covid policy, that doctors and nurses could be infecting patients.

It seems frontline medical workers are being told to come in even if they have the virus themselves because of staff shortages.

A Chinese professor specialising in health policy has been monitoring the crisis in his home country from Yale University in the United States.

Chen Xi told the BBC that he has been speaking to hospital directors and other medical staff in China about the massive strains on the system right now.

"People who've been infected have been required to work in the hospitals which creates a transmission environment there," he said.

China's hospitals have hastily increased their fever ward capacity to meet a huge influx of patients, but these have been filling up quickly, in part because the message is still not getting through that it is all right to stay at home if you catch the virus.

Prof Chen says much more needs to be done to explain this to people.

"There is no culture of staying at home for minor symptoms," he said. "When people feel sick they all go to hospitals, which may easily crash the healthcare system."

A rush on pharmacies has led to significant nationwide shortages of medicine used to treat a cold or the flu. Home testing kits for Covid are also hard to come by.

In Beijing, though restaurants are allowed to open again, they have very few customers and the streets are quiet.

Companies are telling employees they should return to the office, but many don't want to.

This all makes sense when you consider that, just weeks ago, the government was saying that there will be no swerving from zero-Covid, that those infected must go to centralised quarantine facilities and that lockdowns were necessary.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63944861

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[August]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

"This video is age restricted and only available on YouTube. Learn more."


Since when are Doctor Johns videos age restricted?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by August

"This video is age restricted and only available on YouTube. Learn more."


Since when are Doctor Johns videos age restricted?

First time I've come across that

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]