China announces end to COVID-19 travel code service – Saudi Gazette

China announces end to COVID-19 travel code service – Saudi Gazette

BEIJING — China will no longer require its digital travel code service from Tuesday onwards amid measures to relax the “zero-COVID" policy in the country.

Following the measures announced by the Chinese State Council last week, a statement by the “Travel Card” operator, Baidu, said the digital service will be “officially offline” from Dec. 13 midnight.

“Communication itinerary card inquiry channels such as text messages, web pages, WeChat applets, Alipay applets, and APPs will be offline simultaneously,” the statement added.

The Travel Card was in service since March 6, 2020, three months after the first cases were reported in Wuhan city of China in December 2019.

After witnessing demonstrations in recent weeks, China last Wednesday announced loosening its strict “Zero COVID" policy, including a reduction in the frequency of nucleic tests.

The country’s National Health Commission (NHC) said the joint prevention and control mechanism of China's State Council released 10 new measures, allowing infections with mild or no symptoms to take home quarantine and reduce the frequency of nucleic acid testing.

Under the new measures, public places will no longer require nucleic acid test results.

The NHC said test results and health code will "no longer be required for cross-regional travel."

According to the NHC, China on Sunday