Published on: 02/09/2022 – 17:00 While more countries are abandoning Covid-19 regulations, most regions in China continue to impose strict quarantine and testing policies, and this despite public complaints. In the southern province of Guangdong, the preventive measures are particularly severe. A recent breakdown of the province’s health pass in the industrial city of Shenzhen has sparked further protests. If the rest of the world resolves to coexist with Covid-19, China remains adamant on its zero Covid policy by adopting strict containment and testing rules. In recent days, Shenzhen, a city of more than 17 million people Residents in Guangdong province have witnessed an upsurge in Covid-19 cases, prompting the government to step up preventive measures. The city is known to have one of the most stringent PCR programs in the country, with the interval between PCR tests increasing from 72 hours at the start of the year to 48 hours and then to 24 hours. The province uses a electronic Covid pass system, Guangdong Health Code, known as Yuekang, to monitor citizens’ movements and infection status. Residents of the province rely on Yuekang apps installed on their phones to go about their daily lives, scanning QR codes to enter closed areas such as their residence or workplace. They are only allowed entry if a recent PCR test shows they are Covid-negative and have not been in close contact with any patients. The Yuekang platform experienced a technical issue on August 31, when the system completely crashed in Shenzhen for several hours, which prevented residents from getting PCR tests and moving around the city. The hashtag “# Shenzhen PCR test failure” circulated on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Users have expressed their dissatisfaction with this unexpected scenario, complaining about how their work has been put on hold because they have not been able to renew their Covid-10 exemption “green” status on the Yuekang system. Internet users in Shenzhen complain about the collapse of the health code system on Weibo. “Shenzhen people are too enthusiastic about PCR testing, which cripples the health code system.” © Observers The second post: “Incredible. We have to do a PCR test within 24 hours, and it’s been an hour since the failure happened.” © Observers The third post: “Are we still testing today? I bet the system will be overwhelmed later.” © Observers Residents of Nanshan District, Shenzhen, line up for PCR tests on September 1. © Observers Green code required to enterOur observer Yujun (first name changed for security reasons) explained to us how the health code system works in Guangdong province, where Shenzhen is located. Each Chinese province has its own health code system . Ours is called Guangdong Health Code (GHC), or Yuekang. Currently in Shenzhen, as long as you have the green code, you can enter anywhere, with or without vaccination. The main purpose of GHC is to track the history of people’s movements. For example, if you go to the cinema, you will see a QR code at the entrance. You scan it on your phone, then the app sends your location and time of visit to Yuekang’s central system. Later, if the location confirms a case of Covid-19, your visit will appear in the database and your personal Yuekang code may turn yellow or red. However, since the geolocation function of the application is not always accurate, it happens quite often that the data is wrong, and that your code turns yellow or red by mistake. Yuekang code application interfaces sent by Yujun. © Observers This video posted on the Chinese social network Weibo on August 30, 2022 shows residents of Shenzhen queuing to take their PCR test in the Longgang district after the confirmation of new Covid cases. The caption reads “The line is endless. Shenzhen, stay strong!” © Weibo/@蝸牛先生 “How can you expect people to do a PCR test every 24 hours?” Following the recent escalation of the pandemic in Shenzhen, we spoke with another City Observer , Xiaohua (first name changed). She shared with us her daily routine: I take a test every day after work. In Shenzhen, the queues for a PCR test are well organized, but they can be really long. I had never seen a tail as long as when the situation started to become more volatile last week. It had to be at least 1.5 km long. It took me over an hour to take the test. Residents of Shenzhen line up to get tested on August 31. © Observers It’s quite stressful to wait for the result of the PCR. For example, I work in an office building, and if I do not receive my negative result in time, I cannot enter the building to work. In recent days, as the number of confirmed cases has started to increase again, the Building security even started checking location histories on our Yuekang app to see if we’ve been to high-risk areas. Screenshot of the green code on the Yuekang code system sent by Yujun. © Observers But how can you ask people to do a PCR test every 24 hours? We are human beings and as such it is inevitable that we will make a mistake. There will definitely be a time when we forget to take a test or fail to take one, and yet we have to go to work the next day. It’s not that people do not take their test on purpose, sometimes , we are simply making a mistake. “People are using fake codes to get around the rules” Linqian (name changed), also from Shenzhen, told our newsroom about the conditions that temporarily crippled her on August 31, the day of the blackout. My health certificate is suddenly turned yellow. I had to take a PCR test to get my code back to green. I was in a remote place when this happened. The app told me to go to a yellow status testing center, but it was very far. With my yellow code, I couldn’t take the metro or a taxi. Finally, I used a fake code to take a taxi. With all the restrictions, many people are using fake codes to circumvent the rules. I knew the system was down and many people were waiting for hours to take a PCR test. I thought I was going to have to wait a long time too, but in the end it wasn’t a long wait. My negative result was saved in the app, but it took four hours for my status to turn back to green. It always takes a few hours. And I hadn’t even been to the place where they claimed I had been in close contact with the virus! I have no idea how this could have happened. Once the issue was resolved, residents who failed to get a test on time were furious with the testing platform because they couldn’t get to work without a green code the next day. © Observers