China collaborates with tech giants to track people with coronavirus

Amid the unprecedented coronavirus outbreak, China's government is reportedly now enlisting the help of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd to expand colour-based systems for tracking individuals affected with the virus. According to reports, Alipay released a feature in collaboration with the government that assigns a coloured QR code representing the health of residents in Hangzhou. The recent efforts by the Chinese government come as a part of the measures taken by the authorities to control the movement of people to curb the spread of the virus. 

The new app will ask the users in the city to fill out an online form reporting their ID number and any symptoms they might have that suggests an illness, such as fever or heavy cough. Once the users fill the form, they will be receiving a colour-based QR-code, a type of barcode, on their mobile phones indicating their health status. According to reports, users with a red code are then instructed to remain quarantined for 14 days and provide regular check-ins via DingTalk which is a workplace chat app also run by Alibaba. 

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On the other hand, users with yellow code are instructed to stay inside for seven days and users with green code are allowed to travel freely. The new system is further described as a tool to be deployed at travel checkpoints, such as train stations or highways. Tencent Holdings Ltd reportedly also announced a similar QR code in collaboration with a division of China's National Development and Reform Council (NDRC). 

Death toll crosses 1,800

The death toll for the novel Coronavirus hit 1,868 in mainland China. As per the Chinese state health committee, it has increased by 98 in just one day. The committee also added that the number of confirmed cases has gone up by 1,886 to 72,436.

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First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread across 20 countries since December 2019. About 1,701 people have recovered from the disease, whereas, a total of 12,552 coronavirus patients have by now been discharged from hospitals. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dubbed the virus as COVID-19.

The death toll for n-Coronavirus has surpassed the tolls from the SARS epidemic of 2002-03. The origin of the virus has been linked to the local seafood market of Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei province in central China. Few of the countries currently affected by the virus include Singapore, Thailand, Japan, India, and the United States.

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