Chinese President Xi Jinping is pushing for a Covid-19 tracking system by using QR codes, as a part of “global mechanism” to ease travellers across the world during the coronavirus disease pandemic. Xi proposed the need to restore the secure and smooth operation of global industrial and supply chains during a virtual G20 summit on Saturday. The process is already in place across a lot of places in China.
He proposed a mechanism on the mutual recognition of health certificates in the form of “internationally accepted QR codes”. “We need to further harmonise policies and standards and establish fast tracks to facilitate the orderly flow of personnel,” Xi said at the summit.
He further added that the health certificates will be based on “nucleic acid test results” and expressed hope that more countries will join the mechanism, without further elaborating on the proposal.
Xi suggested this as a part of China’s bigger list of suggestion on coping with the pandemic that is still raging across the world after more than eight months of outbreak; it has also led to multiple rounds of lockdowns across nations around the world.
Whilst most of the countries are coming to terms with cross-border travel with arrangements that include creating air travel bubbles, China’s proposal aims to make travelling easier on an individual level. Reportedly, China has made mobile QR codes essential within the country as a safety measure. Hong Kong is also planning to come up with such arrangement.
Xi’s proposal has evoked mixed response from most of the participating countries, especially with organisations raising concern over privacy features and data safety of a standard QR code across nations.
