Beijing, Shanghai start inter-regional recognition of COVID test result to reduce economic impact

Special: Battle Against Novel Coronavirus

Multiple places, including Beijing and Shanghai, have started inter-regional recognition of COVID-19 test results as the Chinese central government urged regional authorities to improve test data sharing between each other to enhance the convenience of the public to travel and reduce the impact of epidemic prevention on economic development.

Shanghai added a function in its health code application that shows users' records of nucleic acid tests conducted in places across the Yangtze River Delta region, which covers East China's Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, in addition to Shanghai, in the past 14 days. Similar to Shanghai, such test query service has also been rolled out in Anhui.

Beijing's health code application also added the nucleic acid test results of other provinces and cities, starting from Saturday. The changes will allow users' local health code system to show the latest test results, regardless of where the tests were conducted.

Other places, such as South China's Guangdong Province, Northeast China's Liaoning and Jilin provinces, have also established similar mechanism for COVID test results inquiry.

The implementation of the inter-regional recognition of COVID test results came as the State Council issued a statement on Friday urging a national mutual recognition of nucleic acid test results to ensure a better and more normal life order for the public amid the epidemic.

Previous to the changes, users' data recorded in the health code applications of China's provinces and cities are not commonly shared, which has created troubles for some people, especially travelers.

In some places, people who travel back from other regions are prohibited from entering public places or taking public transportation as their COVID test results are not available in local health codes. In such cases, people have had to repeatedly conduct nucleic acid tests in order to have a locally recorded test result.

The promotion of mutual recognition of nucleic acid test results across the country aims to reduce the impact on economic development while effectively controlling the epidemic, said Yang Jianhua, expert of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, urging local governments in more places to speed up implementing the inter-regional recognition system, according to CCTV reports.