The end of China’s national COVID-tracking app

China’s COVID-tracking app and database that has ruled the lives of all Chinese people who want to travel or visit public places will go offline tomorrow, December 13, as the clock ticks past midnight.

The app, which uses cell phone signals to track whether someone has been in or near high-risk areas or places where COVID infections had been reported, has been operational since March 2020.

Some local governments have required different local apps for residents to gain access to public venues, and not all of these have been suspended yet, but the abandonment of the Communications Itinerary Card (通信行程卡) app run by the central government is a clear indicator that the COVID-zero policy is finally over.

• Mass testing requirements have also been significantly eased, people who test positive for COVID are now permitted to isolate at home rather than being forced into state facilities, and there are no longer any central-government-mandated lockdowns of neighborhoods and residential communities.

The scrapping of the app was greeted with joy on Chinese social media, although people have expressed concern about what will happen to the private data that the app has collected and stored over the years.

The end of mandated lockdowns has meant COVID cases are spiking, although the true numbers of infections will no longer be accurately reflected in government data, as testing is no longer compulsory.

• Pessimistic epidemiologists are forecasting millions of COVID deaths in the coming weeks, and every informed commentator is expecting high infection rates: Féng Zǐjiàn 冯子健, a senior adviser on China’s COVID task force, last week said that models of “the first wave of large-scale shocks” indicate that the infection rate in China’s population may reach about 60%, and eventually 80% to 90% will be infected.
• Cities across the country remain eerily quiet, with many residents opting to avoid commuting, shopping, crowds, and offices.

There are long queues forming at clinics, and there has been a run on fever medication as well as certain traditional Chinese medicines, according to multiple reports.

• With infections spreading rapidly in households, factories, and offices, hospitals and clinics are struggling to deal with influxes of patients.
• “A triage system has been set up to funnel COVID patients to community health centers,” according to the New York Times, “but there are already early signs of understaffing and of shortages of the necessary supplies.”
• As of November 21, 2022, a total of nearly 3.5 billion vaccine doses had been administered in China, according to the World Health Organization, but more than 600 million people have only received one dose, and only about 40% of people aged 80 and older have had boosters.