Facial Recognition Fails As People Are Required To Wear Masks To Avoid Coronavirus

For people living in China, Coronavirus has causes changes in their daily lives. To a country that is making the most use out of facial recognition, wearing masks is posing as a problem.

With the outbreak of Coronavirus, citizens are required to put on surgical face masks while going out on the streets or to public places. With their half-covered faces, it is impossible for them to unlock their phones or using mobile payments with facial recognition.

In China, facial recognition used in many places, from airports and train stations to hotels and stores. Some people say that they can’t even enter gated communities that use facial recognition systems for security.

Even before the outbreak of Coronavirus, the use of surgical masks has been a common sight in China as well as other countries in Asia to protect themselves against pollution. Just last week, an executive of Huawei said that the company planned to enable facial recognition feature for users wearing masks.

For some people, facial recognition is an integral part of their lives so being unable to use them is annoyingly inconvenient.

At the moment, there are 11,374 confirmed cases with 259 deaths and 252 recovered. The virus is believed to have come from Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which is a trading place for wildlife. On 23 January, to prevent the virus from spreading, the Chinese authorities put the city under lockdown. Some airlines have also suspended their flights to mainland China.

Foreign nationals who are being evacuated from the city are being transferred into quarantine centers. The deadly virus has spread to 16 countries outside of China including Australia, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Côte d'Ivoire, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.S, and Vietnam.

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