Opinion | Code red on China’s tech line against Covid-19
- The crash of a health app in Xian tests efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus
- It is also piling pressure on officials who must maintain the nation’s zero-Covid line
It all came crashing down in Xian on Tuesday.
As the city of more than 13 million people entered its 13th day of lockdown to try to contain the worst outbreak of the coronavirus in China since the eruption in Wuhan two years ago, the city’s health code app collapsed under the strain.
The app generates a health code that determines where a person can go and what they can do, including an activity as commonplace as taking a bus.
The crash on Tuesday made it impossible for some residents to check the results of swab tests, which would determine whether they would have to go to a quarantine hotel.
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Most people in the city have already endured four rounds of tests already, and the resulting health codes are reportedly scanned an average of 8 million times a day.