Beijing has completed the development of a unified nucleic acid test (NAT) information platform, said the authority at the 202nd press conference on COVID-19 prevention and control held by the municipal government of Beijing on January 5, 2021.

As introduced, the platform will provide unified access to support a surge of demand for NATs and get through all the NAT data for efficient appointment and access of local citizens.

The mass NAT processing function of the platform has already been activated, raising the efficiency of NAT sampling by 5 to 10 times, i.e. only 2 minutes on average needed for a person to scan the code and complete the sampling. 

Unified access is enabled on the Beijing Health Kit mini-program, through which citizens may generate a personal reservation code and complete the NAT sampling in a suggested time frame.

Population groups without access to smart phones or the mini-program, like the elderly, children, foreigners and other groups, may get an appointment code from code-generator terminals placed on the site by scanning ID cards or entering passport numbers.

The platform will interlink an appointment code scanned on the site and a sample tube bar code prepared by a testing institution to ensure the rapid and orderly sample testing. The whole process involving no contact will effectively avoid cross infection therefore caused.

(Note: Content source is from The Beijing News.)