Improved scrutiny leads to unexpected benefits
China’s health code app platform has provided an unintended benefit by helping a man surnamed Yu in Zhumadian, Henan province, to find his son after they lost contact four years ago.
Yu entered his son’s information, including his ID card number, into the platform and noticed that the young man had undertaken a nucleic acid test in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital.
With the help of a local television station, Yu and his wife were reunited with their son. When they met, the young man, who left home to avoid an arranged marriage, showed his parents a photo of his girlfriend.
“If it wasn’t for the nucleic acid tests, I wouldn’t have found my son,” Yu told a reporter from the Henan Broadcasting System on Aug 12. A program on the station showed Yu and other three families being reunited with their children, including a woman who had left home 12 years ago.
Ouyang Kang, head of the Institute of State Governance at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, capital of the central province of Hubei, said the battle against COVID-19 has helped the country’s anti-epidemic system to become more sound and systematic, with more information being shared and a more orderly society.
“Nucleic acid testing is actually a social system, which is conducted simultaneously by various departments, industries and communities, demonstrating the strength of the whole social mobilization system,” he said. “Our social governance has become more comprehensive, in-depth, accurate and timely.”
On Aug 10, the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism against COVID-19 released a circular to strengthen nucleic acid testing. It said that allinclusive testing on populations of 5 million or less should be completed in two days, and a three-day limit was set for populations of more than 5 million people.
“A system of precise detection has been built. Such speed can be guaranteed by the abundant supply of materials, technical support and experienced medical workers,” Ouyang said.
He added that the system also relies on a high level of voluntary participation by both individuals and communities. As everyone belongs to at least one residential or working community, it is easier to spot people with illnesses.
On Aug 10, a resident of Wuhan’s Qiaokou district told local police that workers at a building site were worried about a colleague surnamed Ding, who had made a number of excuses to avoid providing his ID number for nucleic acid tests. It turned out that he was listed as a fugitive online, having committed a theft at a construction site in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in March.
“The unintended consequences also reflect our highly refined urban governance,” Ouyang said, adding that China’s economic and social development system and the regular epidemic prevention and control system are highly integrated.