中国、行動追跡アプリ終了へ コロナ感染急増も

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】中国政府は１２日、新型コロナウイルス感染拡大防止のため導入していた行動追跡アプリの運用を、１３日で終了すると発表した。（写真は資料写真）
　感染を徹底的に封じ込める「ゼロコロナ」政策を敷いてきた中国は先週、一転して行動規制の大幅緩和に踏み切った。
　運用終了を発表した国営アプリ「通信行程カード」は、２０２０年に導入。携帯電話の位置情報を利用して、感染の危険が高い地域への移動履歴を追跡する仕組みで、「ゼロコロナ」政策の中核を担ってきた。
　携帯電話番号を登録したユーザーの感染リスクを４段階で色分け表示。自治体間の移動や公共施設への入館、イベント入場の際に、アプリ画面に緑色の矢印が表示されていることを提示する必要があった。
　ただ、中国には他にも日常生活を管理する行動追跡アプリがあり、市や省が運用する「健康コード」は現在も多くの人が店舗やオフィスへの出入りに使用している。
　規制緩和が進む一方、数百万人の高齢者がまだワクチン接種を完了していないにもかかわらず、感染力の強い変異株「オミクロン株」の感染が急増していることに、保健当局者は強い懸念を示している。
　感染者数は先月に過去最多を記録した後急減しており、１２日の新規陽性者数は８６２６人だった。しかし、大規模検査の義務付けが見直されたことから、実際の感染者数はこれをはるかに上回るとみられる。
　著名ウイルス学者の鐘南山氏は１１日、国内でオミクロン株感染が「急拡大している」と国営テレビで警告した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/12/13-13:22）

China said Monday it would retire an app used to track Covid-19 contacts, a milestone in the country's rapid turn away from its zero-tolerance coronavirus strategy.
The state-run Communications Itinerary Card, which tracks whether someone has been to a high-risk area based on their phone signal, will go offline at 12 am Tuesday, according to an official WeChat post, after more than two years in operation.
The Itinerary Card was a central part of China's zero-Covid policy, with millions of people required to key in their phone numbers to produce its signature green arrow in order to travel between provinces or enter events.
The decision comes just days after China announced an end to large-scale lockdowns, mandatory quarantine in central facilities, and a broad relaxation of testing measures, effectively throwing in the towel on its zero-Covid strategy.
Official reported cases in the country have dropped sharply from all-time highs last month, but top Chinese health expert Zhong Nanshan warned in state media Sunday that the prevailing Omicron variant was spreading rapidly through the country.
First rolled out in 2020 with a four-tier system that assigned different colours depending on users' predicted level of Covid exposure, the Itinerary Card was tweaked multiple times before a final change this year shortened the tracking period from 14 to seven days.
It is only one of a panoply of tracking apps that have governed everyday life in China throughout the pandemic, with most people using local health codes run by their city or province to enter shops and offices.
But social media users nevertheless hailed the Itinerary Card's retirement, noting the symbolism of Beijing shutting down its main tracking app.
Many posted screenshots of their last logins.
Bye bye, this announces the end of an era, and also welcomes a brand new one, one person wrote on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
Goodbye itinerary card, concerts here I come, wrote another.
Others asked what would become of the mountains of data collected by the app.
The Itinerary Card and other similar products mean vast amounts of personal information and private data, wrote one Weibo user.
I hope there will be mechanisms and measures to log out and delete this.