Editorial: Disable China’s ‘Health Codes' as Soon as Possible

Since China’s Covid-19 policy was optimized at the end of 2022, the future of the “health code” system has remained a focus of public attention. And yet this remains to be finalized. Several Yuekang (Guangdong) health code services, such as service portals for the elderly and young children, health declarations and epidemic prevention workstations, were recently closed down, and all data collected for the services was taken offline and slated for destruction to guarantee personal information security. The Yuekang health code system remains operational. This news, however, has triggered public discussion concerning the abolition of health codes. At Thursday’s meeting of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, it was announced that “We have achieved major decisive success in our response to Covid-19.”