Australians have been busily checking bushfire apps all summer, but in China, residents are keeping a close eye on their coronavirus apps.

Chinese citizens are using mapping programs and travel trackers in a bid to avoid neighbourhoods with coronavirus infections.

Both data-mapping company QuantUrban and a third-party WeChat mini-program developer have created platforms that take official information on the neighbourhoods where confirmed cases live, and map it geographically, so that users can gauge how close they are to infection sites.

While the WeChat program, called YiKuang, or ‘Epidemic Situation’, covers the southern cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, QuantUrban’s browser-based maps also cover nine other cities in the province.