China… Anyone within about a kilometer of Corona patients is “at risk”

China has expanded the definition of “close contact” with patients with the Corona virus, as the authorities are trying hard to prevent transmission, and now considers people who are far away and without acquaintances of infected people “at risk.”

People who are in the same public area at the same time someone is found to be infected will need to undergo medical tests or be quarantined, according to the latest notices from local health authorities, according to Bloomberg.
Chinese officials frequently mention the term “spatial and temporal interference,” which means that people do not have to be in direct contact with a COVID-19 patient to be considered “at risk” and simply “interfering” with a person carrying the virus is sufficient.

Authorities have been using mobile phone monitoring to identify people classified as close contacts of confirmed infected people throughout the pandemic, but recent efforts appear to have expanded those contact criteria as the more contagious “delta” variant continues to spread.

The definition of “spatial overlap” varies between provinces. In Chengdu, for example, two criteria must be met, namely, a person whose mobile phone appeared within the same grid box of 800 meters (2,600 feet) of a person with a confirmed infection, for more than 10 minutes.

If a person’s phone has appeared in the city for more than 30 hours in the last 14 days, it is also considered a potential contact, state media reported, citing local health officials. The police discovered 82,000 people at risk using the new methodology.

The country recorded 99 new infections, all of them local infections, today, Monday, including 34 asymptomatic cases. However, the number is still low compared to outbreaks in other parts of the world.