Big data behind rapid response to Beijing market coronavirus cluster

Concerns raised about the use of surveillance technology in the fight against Covid-19 and how it will be used in future

Chinese social media users share their experiences of being contacted about the need to get tested because of the digital tools

Reading Time:6 minutes

Published: 12:00pm, 27 Jun 2020Updated: 10:37pm, 27 Jun 2020

“Have you taken the nucleic acid test?” has become a popular greeting in Beijing, where a Covid-19 outbreak linked to a wholesale food market has been brought under rapid control through widespread testing.

More than 3 million people – about 15 per cent of the Chinese capital’s population – have been tested for the disease since the first cases in the new outbreak emerged on June 11, according to the municipal government. Just eight days after the first infection was identified, Beijing declared the transmission had been controlled.

“We will continue to see more infected people in the near future but the disease is under control,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said on June 18, while also paying tribute to the city’s response. “Beijing’s prompt handling and effective control made a remarkable contribution,” he said.

As of Saturday, the number of patients in Beijing had climbed to 297, most of them related to the Xinfadi market in the city’s southwest district of Fengtai. But, while mass tracing and testing quickly brought the cluster under control, the role of “big data” has raised concerns, along with questions over whether the surveillance measures will be rescinded once the pandemic has passed.

The city urged people who worked at the sprawling market, and those who had visited it, since May 30, to get tested – as well as nearby residents and employees of restaurants, grocery stores, wholesale markets and food delivery companies.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x