City-Cut or Radius-Cut? Design Principle of the Chinese Anti-pandemic Traveling Record Card System (Preprint)

Abstract

Analysis of 25 million Shanghai citizens’ daily movements supports the city-cut approach for travel restrictions in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city’s high connectivity and compact nature justify the city-cut approach over the geographic distance-based radius-cut approach, effectively containing the spread of COVID-19 within the metropolis.