Shanghai’s health code system, which uses advanced technologies to protect the city during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been used for almost 1 billion trips since its debut in January. It was the earliest and most advanced system in pandemic prevention and control nationwide, an industry conference heard yesterday.

The city will also upgrade its health care and medical system soon, as Internet hospitals and developing medical cloud services grow, experts told theInspurData Technology Conference in Shanghai.

The health code system has been used 990 million times in Shanghai at airports, railway stations, tourist sites and shopping centers during the pandemic. It has exchanged over 420,000 pieces of information in the Yangtze River Delta region, offeringfrontlinestaff safe and efficient methods to prevent COVID-19 infection, saidInspur, one of the core tech suppliers of the system.

The epidemic has boosted demand in the health care, finance and scientific research sectors, according toInspur, China’s biggest computer server vendor.

In the second quarter,its server sales jumped 53 percent year on year, giving it a 39.1 percent market share in the domestic server market and 11.3 percent globally, according to researchers IDC andGartner.

Shanghai is upgrading the health code system with more intelligent and efficient features. Meanwhile, the city is advancing its intelligent hospital project. It will connect health care and medical data on a city-level cloud, which is accessible to all medical organizations.

Under the project, Shanghai’s first Internet hospital will debut inZhujiajiaotomorrow.

The project is designed to eventually connect all medical data in the Yangtze River Delta, local officials told the conference.

The intelligent hospital system requires advanced computing and storage technologies on a cloud database and medical imaging data storage and analysis for uses such as COVID-19 diagnosis, remote medical services and cancer screening.

With the growing demand in medical and other industries, Inspur’s storagebusiness sales tripled year on year in 2020, said Henry Li, general manager ofInspur’sproduction line.