14 BEIJING REVIEW MARCH 12, 2020 http://www.bjreview.com
faster, are easier to operate and cost less,
said Chen Jianguo, dean of the college.
The college is also researching and
developing drugs for COVID-19, including
traditional Chinese medicine drugs, with
some already under clinical trial, he added.
Besides scientists and researchers,
Chinese tech giants are also providing sup-
port. Baidu has given genetic researchers
access to its RNA prediction algorithm. The
tool can halve the time taken to predict the
RNA secondary structure of the virus under
study, which would speed up the develop-
ment of medical therapies.
In February, a hospital in Zhengzhou,
capital of Henan Province in central China,
began to use scan machines with a sophisti-
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research arm of the Alibaba Group. It can
analyze CT images of COVID-19 patients in
20 seconds with 96 percent accuracy, the
developer said.
The West China Hospital of Sichuan
University, one of China’s famous hospitals,
has adopted 5G technology to conduct CT
scans and diagnose patients remotely. On
March 2, doctors in Sichuan Province in the
southwest remotely diagnosed 106 people
in Huanggang, a city in Hubei, the province
where Wuhan is located.
“With 5G technology, we are able to con-
trol the CT scanners in distant hospitals on a
real-time basis,” Li Zhenlin, Deputy Director
of the Radiology Department in the Sichuan
hospital, told CGTN. The scans are highly ef-
fective in diagnosing patients who display
no obvious outward symptoms, enabling pa-
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stage and preventing further spread of the
epidemic, Li said. However, he added that CT
scans play a supplementary role and should
be done alongside nucleic acid testing.
Information sharing
New technologies, including AI and big data,
have been applied to epidemiological inves-
tigation to trace where the virus came from
and how it has developed.
Digital maps supported by big data are
helping to monitor population flows and
trends as people gradually return to their
cities of residence and resume work. Baidu
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every day, and its map application can show
where passengers come from and go and
the population migration scale, trend and
intensity. The information can be used for
scientific research, by the government, the
media and even the public.
Another leading Chinese navigation
service provider, AutoNavi, has launched an
online application for the public to check
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ing to Beijing Daily.
In February, the Ministry of Civil Affairs
urged tech giants to develop software that
would help contain the spread of the novel
coronavirus in residential communities. Soon
after that, Hangzhou in east China became
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QR code system.
Residents report their health condition
via government service applications or third-
party platforms. The system then assigns
them a QR code in one of three colors: red,
yellow or green according to their health
condition and travel history. Those who are
in good health will be given a green code and
can return to work and move around the city
freely. Yellow and red code holders must stay
in quarantine for a number of days. Duringthis period, they need to log into the system
every day till their codes turn green.
More cities have now assigned residents
such QR codes. Tencent has also announced
a similar system developed in collaboration
with a division of the National Development
and Reform Commission.
A national health code system was
launched on February 29. It will gradually be
connected with local systems.
Yu Jianxing, Dean of the School of Public
Affairs of Zhejiang University, said the health
QR code is a precise and smart way to pre-
vent and control epidemic. “It’s also a very
important technical tool to facilitate the re-
sumption of work and production,” he said.
At the same time, the Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology is ensuring
that residents’ data collected through theNucleic acid test kits are developed in a workshop in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in southwest China, on February 24XINHUAAn employee of Luoyang Ascend Biotechnology Co. takes out nucleic acid test kits for vacuum packaging
in Luoyang, Henan Province in central China, on March 4XINHUA