City in China Giving Almost SGD$2,000 to Anyone Who Proactively Gets Diagnosed to be a COVID-19 Case

Are you familiar with affiliate marketing?

If not, here’s how it works: some websites would have links that push you to other platforms, like Amazon.sg lah or Qoo10 lah.

I’m using these examples because they’re platforms you’ve familiar with that have affiliate marketing programs—in the online world, there are countless affiliate programs.

So, if you go to the link and buy something, the website owner will get a certain % of the sales.

If many people go to the platform but didn’t buy anything, the website owner will earn nothing.

Many websites are doing this, and now, even a city is doing it.

But they’re not asking you to buy stuff from Taobao.

Instead, their “affiliate program” is to look for potential COVID-19 patients, though it works in a slightly different manner.

City in China Giving Almost SGD$2,000 to Anyone Who Proactively Get Diagnosed to be a COVID-19 Case

In a move that’s both creative and controversial, Qianjiang, a city located in Hubei province (the epicentre of the virus) is now offering as much as 100,000 yuan (~SGD$1,990) to people who proactively report their symptoms and are tested positive for COVID-19.

No COVID-19, no money.

For example, if you live in the city and feel that you might have caught the nasty bug after you’ve exhibited symptoms, you can get tested and if you indeed are infected, you’d get a cash handout of a whopping SGD$1,990.

The city now has 197 confirmed cases so far, and it’s looking to use this innovative method to incentivise people to get tested.

In other words, you’d get paid just for having COVID-19.

Not exactly the best move since people might abuse it, but it’s still a strategy nevertheless.

And it turns out that they’re not the only city doing that.

Neighbouring cities are also dangling the carrots albeit at a lower rate: reports indicate that they are offering between 300 yuan (~SGD$60) to 500 yuan (~SGD$100).

It’s unknown how many people have been detected due to this unique incentive, but in recent days, the number of confirmed cases reported in China is less than the number of reported cases in other countries combined.

In China, as of time of writing, they have a total of 78,514 cases, and 32,563 patients have been discharged.

Here in Singapore, we have 93 confirmed cases and 62 patients have been discharged.