Shanghai residents are required to scan the “venue code” or receive checks from the “digital sentry” — a comprehensive code-scanning and temperature-check machines — to enter or leave public venues and communities.

Some public sites will also require the 48-hour negative polymerase chain reaction test result, according to the city’s Big Data center.

Foreign residents can apply for a health QR code with their passport through the Suishenban (随申办) app. It will take one workday for manual verification and approval. They can also bond their Chinese bank cards with Suishenban mini program on Alipay to get the code.

Shanghai will further promote the venue code and digital sentry machines at public sites and residential compounds to enhance COVID-19 prevention and control.

Apart from the emergency medical requirements, residents must show their green health code to enter or leave their communities, Zhu Junwei, deputy director of the Big Data center, told the city government’s daily COVID-19 press briefing yesterday.

Almost all local public venues and communities will put up the venue codes, which can check the identity, health information and latest PCR test result and record the trace of the visitors for epidemiological investigation in case of any COVID-19 flare-ups.

Residents are required to scan the code with Suishenban, Alipay or WeChat smartphone apps before entering the sites or communities. After scanning, their health codes and the name of the venue will be displayed on the mobile phone with audio broadcast for security guards to inspect.

Public places receiving a large number of visitors should deploy the digital sentries, which can scan the health code or ID card of each visitor and check the body temperature.

Those who cannot use smartphone apps can use their ID cards or paper-version health codes for security staff to scan and verify.

Companies and residential compounds without the venue code or digital sentry won’t be allowed to resume work or apply to become a “pandemic-free compound.”

The personal information collected through venue codes and digital sentries will be used only for the epidemiological investigation for COVID-19 prevention and control. No company or individual will be allowed to use the data for other purposes, according to Zhu.

The number of local infections dropped 10 percent to 558 on Sunday, with none outside quarantined areas.

Downtown Yangpu and Hongkou districts reported more than 40 percent of the city’s total positive cases in their “locked-down areas” and among people under quarantine.

Shanghai reopened some Metro and bus lines on Sunday. But some districts and towns announced more mass testing and asked residents not to leave their compounds to hold on to the hard-won “zero community transmission” status.

Hongkou, which has not reported any new community-level cases since May 7, was among the six districts which have announced some tightening of curbs in recent days.

Suburban Jinshan, Chongming and Fengxian districts recorded zero infections on Sunday.

Shanghai reported one COVID-19 death yesterday. The 93-year-old woman had severe underlying conditions and had not been vaccinated.

More than 3.7 million local seniors aged over 60 have been vaccinated, accounting for 64.5 percent of the city’s total elderly population, Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Commission, told the press briefing.

Among them, about 2.3 million have taken a booster shot, nearly 40 percent of the total.

Zhao also said more than 160 vaccine clinics across the city have resumed operations.

Meanwhile, Tian Jing, a doctor with the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, reminded residents not to spray disinfectants on human bodies or pets directly, which might cause pneumonia, skin condition or allergy.

Shanghai has allowed more people to leave their homes for brief periods over the past week, although it generally plans to keep most restrictions in place this month before a lifting of the citywide lockdown next month.

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