Communities across China are improving both work efficiency and performance in fighting the novel coronavirus epidemic by developing smart management models.

A resident shows her green QR code indicating she is in good condition in Hangzhou on Feb. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

With people mainly confined to their homes during the outbreak, picking up groceries has become the priority for the country’s vast networks of communities.

To address the issue, many communities have begun working with online shopping platforms to implement a new group-buying model under which commodities are delivered to communities after bulk orders are placed online by residents.

Some offline stores of Alibaba’s fresh food supermarket Hema in Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak, have been rolling out such services for residential communities since Feb. 3.

Eleme, Alibaba’s flagship takeaway-ordering app, has also set up self-service fresh food pickup stations for 11 communities in Wuhan, providing last-mile delivery for local residents.

Meanwhile, communities in over 200 cities in China have begun using QR codes to help with epidemic control efforts and reduce the burden on community workers as of March 10.

Hangzhou in east China’s Zhejiang province has taken the lead in launching a QR code system on the mobile payment app Alipay. People are assigned codes marked green, yellow or red according to the health condition information they provide. Green indicates no safety hazard, while people with yellow and red codes must be held under quarantine.

Shanghai has integrated the health code system with contactless face recognition and body temperature screening functions.

In addition, many communities have also deployed smart tech products, including drones and AI call systems, to help with the fight against the epidemic.

In the Huashan residential area in Shanghai’s Changning district, an unmanned aerial vehicle is being used to disinfect public areas.

In north China’s Tianjin Municipality, nearly 100 community health centers have deployed an AI call system to provide anti-virus information and inquire about the health conditions of residents, taking the place of manual phone calls and door-to-door visits.