Beijing has rolled out a color-coded QR system to identify residents based on their health conditions, in a bid to facilitate work resumption and people's movement, said Pan Feng, deputy chief of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, at a press conference on Sunday.

File photo: CGTN

In Beijing, people can use a mini-program on Alipay and WeChat to access the QR system. Users can obtain their codes by entering their name and national identity number, and register through facial recognition. A green code means the user is not under quarantine, the yellow code indicates that people must quarantine themselves at home, while the red code means the user must undergo supervised quarantine at designated locations. The status of the color codes is updated daily at midnight.

Pan said that, starting from this week, the program will also allow users to check the health codes of others by entering their ID numbers. This is to address the issues of people who do not have smartphones, such as the elderly or children.

All the data from the program will be kept by the Beijing municipal government and is only used for epidemic control and prevention, in order to protect citizens' individual privacy. Beijing also plans to share the related data with Tianjin and Hebei, in a bid to support cooperation in coronavirus tracking.