China’s unified anti-epidemic digital health code used over 40 bln person-times

A total of nearly 900 million people have been granted the health code launched by China’s integrated national government service platform for recognition of health status during the country’s prevention and control of the COVID-19, a report said.

Relevant mini-programs have been used for more than 40 billion person-times, indicated the recent report released by China Internet Network Information Center.

So far, most of the regions in China have realized mutual recognition of health codes, thanks to the support from the integrated national government service platform in aspects including information sharing.

People can now travel more easily among these regions, for they are allowed to pass checkpoints with either the health code granted via the integrated national government service platform that represents the health status of “no sign of abnormity” or a “green” health code granted by any of these regions.

“At Hangzhoudong Railway Station, I showed security guards my health code on the national government service platform and they let me pass the checkpoint. The health code is like a digital identity card now,” said a man surnamed Wu, who recently made a business trip from east China’s Jiangsu province to Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang province.

Wu felt that his recent trip was much easier than the previous ones made since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as his digital health code applied via the national government service platform was also recognized as effective in Hangzhou, which means that he could visit public places in the city without having to apply for a new health code from the local health authority.

In addition to facilitating travel and cross-provincial mobility of people, China’s digital health code mechanism is playing a significant role in improving efficiency in various services launched for the benefit and convenience of people, such as medical treatment and civic services.

East China’s Fujian province has implemented a program that integrates digital health code, medical insurance settlement code, and financial payment code. Relevant functions have been adopted by 14 hospitals administered by the Fujian Provincial Health Commission and have covered more than 36.8 million people.

In south China’s Guangdong province, digital health code has helped 70.97 million residents enjoy convenient medical and health services. Each citizen has one health code, and with it the owner can enjoy services at any of the medical and health institutions in the province.

Hangzhou has integrated citizens’ health code, digital health card and digital social security card,  and promoted connectivity and information sharing among relevant institutions and authorities. Such integration is expected to be expanded to more fields in the city such as public transportation, commerce and trade, as well as tourism.

With more efforts being made to promote the integration of various applications and programs, health code is going to play an increasingly important role in people’s lives, said Zhou Ping, director of the information technology research center of China Electronics Standardization Institute.

The application of health code not only concerns travel, but also services in areas such as online medical care and health care for the elderly, Zhou said, adding that in the future, health code will also be used in social security fields like insurance.