China Plans Unified ‘Health Code’ System as Lunar New Year Approaches

What’s new: The Chinese authorities said Friday that the country will have a unified and mutually recognized health code system to facilitate travels during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.

Lian Weiliang, deputy director of China’s central economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said in a meeting that the promotion of a single health code system throughout the country was fundamental to improving the efficiency of interprovincial trips.

Currently, health codes used as personal electronic passes in the country are developed and launched by different regions. Travelers need to apply for the local health code when they arrive at their destination.

Lian stressed that Covid-19 prevention should be considered the most important task of the 40-day Lunar New Year travel season.

Health officials earlier urged people to avoid nonessential trips over the upcoming period, China’s biggest holiday of the year, to stamp out the Covid-19 flare-up.

The background: China has seen a resurgence of Covid-19 in the past few weeks, with the number of infections hitting a 10 month high.

The National Health Commission reported (link in Chinese) 144 confirmed cases on Friday, six more than the previous day. Of those, 135 cases were locally transmitted. The official national death toll since the start of the epidemic stands at 4,635, after one new death was logged on Thursday.

The hotspots are located in Hebei province, which surrounds China’s capital Beijing, and Heilongjiang province in the far northeast.

As of Friday, Hebei reported 90 new confirmed local transmitted cases, of which 84 are from provincial capital Shijiazhuang. The northeastern province Heilongjiang also reported 43 newly confirmed cases on Friday, all from Wangkui county in Suihua city.

Local health authorities designated Huiqi town in Heilongjiang as a new Covid-19 high-risk area on Wednesday. There are now two high-risk areas in the country. The other is Gaocheng district in Shijiazhuang.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com)