锐客网

  1. 首页 > 科技 > >

{调取该文章的TAG关键词}|Behind the Collapse of Xi'an Covid-19 App

January 4 was the deadline for the municipal government in Xi’an, the ancient capital of China with a population of 12 million, to reach its goal of zero new daily Covid-19 case. On January 1, there were 122 new infections; On January 2, the daily count fell to 90; On January 3, the figure was 95.
The new cases in 24 hours were not many compared with thousands in many cosmopolitan regions in North America during the ongoing fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic since early 2000. But with the zero-case policy in place across China, the doulbe-digit new coronavirus infections have made the outbreak in Xi’an the second catastrophic heathcare event in two years, only after that in Wuhan, the once epicenter of the pandemic.
While many residents in the city rushed to the Covid-19 testing centers to find out if they were infected, their app that stores personal travel history and Covid-19 test results stopped working.
In China, everyone must show their travel records in the past 14 days in order to get on a bus, shop in a store or depart a city. If they visit an area with a single Covid-19 infection, the status of their app is showed in the color of yellow or red, which means they should quarantine for two weeks even if they have no symptoms at all.
Many residents affected by the app crash complained online that they could not even leave home to get tested. Let alone the government’s zero new Covid-19 case goal by January 4.
Every resident in high-risk neighbourhoods of Xi'an is required to get tested for Covid-19 every two days thanks to China’s enormous manufacturing capacity and the centralized administrative system. Many doctors and nurses from other cities were dispatched to the city to help.
Suppliers to App ProjectAmid the fury of the public, it took about two hours for engineers to frantically solve the problem. Actually it was not the first app crash. On December 20, a similar breakdown occurred during the current round of outbreaks in Xi’an that started on December 9, when the first local case, as opposed to infections of overseas travellers to China, was reported. Last time, it took about 24 hours for the app to resume working following hectic repairs.
Rumors quickly circulated online that the municipal government spent only 270,000 yuan (about US$38,600) to build such a vital administrative system. A snapshot of a document showing the government’s invitation for offers from suppliers surfaced.
After a probe in the snapshot by TMTPost, the snapshot turned out to be the document for a different government procurement project.
The app system was developed in three days, according to a news story published in May 2020. However, amid the outcry over the crash, Xi'an Telecom said three days were just the time for developing a prototype, not the final version of the product. 
Based on the information accessed by TMTPost, the procurement project of the app named “One Barcode to Anywhere”, which was designed to curb the spread of the coronavius, was won by China Telecom’s subsidiary Xi’an Telecom. On February 18, 2020, about two months after the outbreak in Wuhan, the app was launched for its tral operations.
Xi’an Telecom divided the project into various parts, which were subcontracted by nearly 10 information technology companies. The project consists of development, operation and maintenance, Internet security-related products and services, server products, text message services and big data among many others.          
The app is built on another project named “Xi’an Digital Administrative Platform”, known as the “Administrative Cloud”. According to the information available to TMTPost，the storage of data, internet and computation services used by the app are supplied by the platform. The services bought by Xi’an Telecom are generally called “application services.”  
According to public information released by government agencies, Alibaba Cloud is the supplier of Administrative Cloud and text message services; Meilin is responsible for back-office algorithm; Xi’an Dongruan System Integration Co. Ltd. supplies software and maintenance services.

推荐阅读


上一篇：机械表|上海美度手表出现偷停状况是怎么回事

下一篇：视觉|畅享广阔大屏！iQOO9Pro屏幕配置升级，视效一流