China wants everyone to use QR-based health certificates

Chinese President Xi Jinping while addressing the 15th G20 Leaders’ Summit via video link called for the world to use “a global mechanism on the mutual recognition of health certificates based on nucleic acid test results in the form of internationally accepted QR codes.”

He mentioned that the world economy is in recession whilst societies and livelihoods are taking a big hit. The impact of COVID-19 is far worse than the global financial crisis of 2008 he added.

According to Xi Jinping, the G20 has taken swift actions in the wake of COVID-19 while agreeing to step up cooperation to fight the pandemic. They agreed to advance the R&D of medicines and vaccines, maintain economic and financial stability, keep the industrial and supply chains open, and ease the debt burden of developing countries.

He suggested that the world follow suit to the Chinese in implementing a global system that can be recognized anywhere in the world. The system proposed entails the use of QR codes for individuals that act as their online health certificates making the ensuring a fast-paced process of analyzing and tracking individuals based on their QR codes.

The QR code stores a person’s travel and health history. Having already been implemented in China, it has helped the officials curb the spread of the virus. The code issues users with a color code based on their potential exposure to the novel coronavirus. There are three colors – green is safest, then amber, and finally red.

Image Source: CNN