China deactivates national Covid tracking app
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES By James Gregory BBC News China has deactivated a phone app that has tracked people's movements during the pandemic. The national app, which has been operational for three years, went offline at the end of Monday. It is the latest policy change that signals Beijing is abandoning its controversial zero-Covid strategy. The move is highly symbolic but will not have a huge impact on people's daily lives because of the local apps still in use in cities across China. The state-run Communications Itinerary Card app, which uses phone signals to track whether someone has travelled to an area considered to be high-risk, was seen as a central part of China's zero-Covid policy. People were required to enter phone numbers in the app in order to produce a green arrow indicating they were able to travel between provinces and enter events. Now travel between provinces has been eased with the removal of Covid-prevention restrictions, the national app has been de...