Moscow authorities are targeting Chinese nationals with raids and using facial recognition technology to try to keep a new virus that began in China from resurfacing and spreading.
In this photo taken on Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, medical workers disinfect rooms in the sanatorium after quarantine period has ended in Bogandinsky in the Tyumen region, about 2150 kilometers east of Moscow, Russia. 144 people who were evacuated from the epicenter of the CONVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, and were released from a 14-day quarantine in western Siberia. None of them tested positive for the virus.
A leaked email that the media reports said was sent by the state-owned transportation company Mosgortrans told dispatchers who took such calls to notify the police. The email, which the company immediately described on Twitter as fake, carried a one-word subject line: coronavirus. The effort to identify Chinese citizens on public transportation applies not only to buses, but underground trains and street trams in Moscow, Russian media reported Wednesday.
“Prevention of any serious virus, be it a flu or the new coronavirus, should involve a proper information campaign and not discrimination of other people,” said Alyona Popova, an activist engaged in a year-long court challenge of Moscow’s use of facial recognition technology. The Moscow Metro confirmed to The Associated Press that the underground system was “actively monitoring the stations” and has a protocol in place for dealing with people who “have recently returned from the People’s Republic of China.”
“So he saw a Chinese national, and then what?” Dashkov said. “How can he ascertain that he saw a Chinese national, or a Vietnamese national, or a Japanese, or Yakutia?” Mosgortrans referred additional questions to the detailed statement from Moscow’s mayor, who on Friday acknowledged the sharp focus on Chinese people in the city’s virus-control plan.
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