A year after the pandemic began in China, it is largely under control. But the government is deploying aggressive containment measures to keep it that way, writes Yvonne Murray in Beijing.
The man, masked and behind a face shield, told me to scan the track-and-trace code with my mobile phone. Up popped my "health kit" – a mini program inside the WeChat app – which showed "no abnormal conditions." The electronic health monitor, required for all Beijing residents, also displayed a photograph of my passport, a fair few of my personal details, and the results of my most recent Covid-19 test.
I had not inputted the test results - they were automatically uploaded via a central data bank connected to my WeChat profile.