Out the front door of such businesses, those private enterprises have a scratch pad, where each patron can write down their SMS number, which may be a prepaid sim number or a throwaway email address, maybe from proton mail or something. But their real name is not required. It’s a real contact but not a real name system and so after 14 days, if there’s any local case, of course they can be contacted. But after another 14 days, if there’s nothing happening in that vicinity, then that scratchpad is shredded. At no point does this information enter the state apparatus, meaning that the local medical officers or the central government don’t need to know that if there are no local outbreaks. And so, it provides a guarantee of anonymity which keeps nightlife district still running, but also provides contact tracers the kind of information they would need if there is indeed a local outbreak. So it also satisfied the public health criteria. And so the nightlife district then reopened, still remained open and they’re part of our counter-pandemic team.

Keyboard shortcuts

j previous speech k next speech