China has recovered since the virus appeared late last year.
Beijing, China:
China aims to screen more than 9 million residents of the port city of Qingdao within five days of a minor coronavirus outbreak, health officials said Monday, the first massive test in months.
The country where the virus first emerged has largely controlled the pandemic, in stark contrast to many parts of the world that still suffer from continuous lockdowns and high numbers of cases.
Six Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Qingdao, a northeast city of 9.4 million, on Sunday, originating from a hospital, the Qingdao municipal health commission said in a statement Monday.
Five districts will be tested “within three days” and the entire city “within five days,” according to the statement.
China has extensive rapid testing capabilities, and the health commission said more than 140,000 employees of “newly admitted medical institutions, patients and staff” have already been tested in Qingdao since the cases were confirmed.
In June, large areas of Beijing were subjected to massive testing after the city of more than 20 million detected virus cases linked to a food market.
China has recovered since the virus emerged late last year, shutting down the country and hitting the world’s second-largest economy.
Hundreds of millions traveled across the country for the ‘Golden Week’ holiday last week as the country grows again, while rapid tests and quick closures have squashed secondary waves of the virus.
Beijing is also desperate to be the first to conjure a coronavirus vaccine, with several companies in the final stage of testing.
Though untested, vaccines have already been administered to hundreds of thousands of key workers and soldiers as China taps into the pandemic narrative to showcase the country’s resilience and the communist government’s ability to handle the crisis.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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