A new lottery system for mask booking on the Wechat program ‘Sui Kang’ was launched at 10:00 pm, February 15th. It makes the reservation system operate more fairly, with the lottery system to be supervised by the Guangzhou Notary Public Office.

Previously, residents could log in and make a reservation with their ID card, passport or other valid documents at 8:00 pm every evening, the speed of someone’s internet connection or other external factors being key to the success/failure of their reservation.

Under the new rules, residents including expats, and Hong Kong and Macao citizens can make a reservation on the program at any time with valid documentation. Following a single successful reservation, there is no need to re-register over a ten day period.

Residents can check the lottery result at around 6:00 pm of the next day. It's worth noting that if someone wins the lottery, they can not make a further reservation for 10 days.

Each person can reserve ten normal protective masks or five N95 masks as before, the masks will then be delivered to your home address for a standard delivery fee.

Furthermore, the Wechat mini-program enables residents to make reserve masks for collection and purchase from pharmacies. After winning the lottery, residents will receive a barcode which can be used together with valid documentation to purchase masks across 167 pharmacies including branches of Jianmin Pharmacy (健民医药) and Guangzhou Medical Pharmacy (广州医药大药房).

Full scale operation will come into effect on February 20th, after which time residents can buy masks from almost 300 pharmacies after making a reservation.

Author: Will Wei

Editor: Simon Haywood