Malaysia already has a contact tracing app (Gerak Malaysia) and it’s downloadable now

‘The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission is testing a beta app called Gerak Malaysia that can do just that and it uses location tracking...

‘At hospitals, the QR code can be used to determine your risk level and it will allow frontliners to assign you to the right queue. For example, if you’ve been to an area that was visited by a confirmed Covid-19 case, you will be flagged as a high-risk...

‘The QR code can also assist the police and armed forces at the roadblocks as they can determine whether you’re travelling within the permitted radius. This feature can potentially replace the approval letters that are required to be presented to the police. As a result, this feature can help speed up the checks and reduce congestion...’

Read here (The Malay Mail, April 17, 2020)

China's post-lockdown monitoring rides on existing hi-tech finance and social media platforms

‘The Chinese government has enlisted the help of the country's two internet giants — Alibaba (BABA) and Tencent (TCEHY) — to host the health code systems on their popular smartphone apps. Alibaba's mobile payment app Alipay and Tencent's messaging app Wechat are both ubiquitous in China, each used by hundreds of millions of people. Placing the health codes on these platforms means easy access for many...

‘Within a week of its launch, the Alipay health codes were rolled out in more than 100 cities across the country, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. By late February, more than 200 cities had adopted these QR codes, according to Alipay... Tencent's health code system had also expanded to more than 300 cities as of last month, according to the state-run Science and Technology Daily."

Read here (CNN, April 16, 2020)