A small Chinese town on the border of Burma is now using facial recognition cameras to monitor the movements of residents and eradicate a small outbreak of Covid-19.
Surveillance cameras are already ubiquitous in public spaces in China, where metropolises are safe and physical violence against people is infrequent.
New technologies are also widely used in the fight against Covid – with the generalization since early 2020 of mobile travel tracking applications.
But the authorities had never yet officially reported on the use of facial recognition cameras specifically intended to combat the spread of the epidemic.
This is now done in Ruili, a town located on the border with Burma and where around sixty local patients have been detected in ten days – including several carriers of the Delta variant.
Among these cases are many Burmese, despite the theoretical closure of the border.
This situation worries the Chinese authorities because Burma is one of the countries in the world where the epidemic has accelerated the most in recent weeks.
It has also been in the grip of serious unrest since the military coup of February 1. A factor that could push the Burmese to cross the borders to flee the fighting.
With the new device, anyone who wants to enter or leave a residential area, supermarket, market and any other high-traffic area of Ruili will have their face scanned by a camera, authorities said on Saturday.
The data is associated with a unique QR code, which automatically monitors a person’s movements. Facial recognition devices are also capable of taking the temperature of individuals, according to national radio CNR.
The system is managed by the municipal authorities.
Ruili had already been struck by three outbreaks, quickly controlled, since the start of the epidemic.
The first country to face Covid-19 at the end of 2019, China has virtually eradicated the disease on its soil since the spring of 2020 and life has largely returned to normal.
A success obtained thanks in particular to the massive screenings, the strict confinements or the compulsory placement in quarantine of all people coming from abroad.
China reported on Tuesday 29 new patients – including 27 so-called “imported”, that is to say because of people coming from the international and placed in isolation in quarantine at the hospital.
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