China : All residents in Wuhan to be tested as Covid19 local infections emerge
Authorities in China’s Wuhan said on Tuesday they will test the entire population for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after the first local infections were reported from the city in more than a year. Wuhan, which has a population of 11 million, is “swiftly launching comprehensive nucleic acid testing of all residents”, senior city official Li Tao said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
Authorities announced on Monday that seven locally transmitted infections had been found among migrant workers in the city, breaking a year-long streak without domestic cases after it squashed an initial outbreak with an unprecedented lockdown in early 2020.
China has confined the residents of entire cities to their homes, cut domestic transport links and rolled out mass testing in recent days as it battles its largest coronavirus outbreak in months.
Major cities including Beijing have now tested millions of residents while cordoning off residential compounds and placing close contacts under quarantine. The eastern city of Yangzhou, near Nanjing, was the latest local government to order residents to stay home after large-scale testing detected 40 new infections over the past day.
Meanwhile, Beijing has blocked tourists from entering the capital during the peak summer holiday travel season and asked residents not to leave unless necessary, with top officials vowing over the weekend to “spare no expense” in defending the city.
China has so far reported 93,193 cases, 4,636 deaths and 87,400 recoveries due to Covid-19. However, the real figures could be much higher than the official data. On Tuesday, the country reported 90 new Covid-19 cases, compared to 98 a day earlier, according to the National Health Commission. And of Tuesday’s case count, 61 infections were locally transmitted.
