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BEIJING (AFP, REUTERS) – More than three million swabs were taken in a matter of days in Qingdao, the Chinese port city where a minor coronavirus outbreak prompted a widespread health response.
Queues for testing stretched until Monday night (October 12) in the eastern city, which detected six cases of the virus the day before but quickly activated to prevent a wider outbreak.
In scenes that contrast with clumsy efforts by other nations to establish effective testing regimes, Qingdao health workers in protective gear set up sampling tents in neighborhoods, where parents brought young children to perform tests. tests.
Residents said on social media that community representatives informed them about their closest test stations, and local districts helped organize sample collection for mass testing.
“As of 8 am … our city has taken 3.08 million samples for nucleic tests, with 1.11 million results received,” the Qingdao health commission said in a statement Tuesday.
In addition to six people with symptoms, six asymptomatic cases have been detected so far.
The city stated that it aims to screen its entire population, about 9.4 million, within five days of detecting the first cases at a hospital on Sunday.
It was not immediately clear how quickly the results could be processed, although China has showcased its rapid testing ability during previous minor outbreaks.
The ruling Communist Party of China is desperate to show its ability to handle the pandemic to its citizens, as well as foreign audiences, after it emerged in the central city of Wuhan. The country has recovered since the virus appeared late last year and forced widespread shutdowns that hit the world’s second-largest economy. China is also desperate to be the first nation to produce a coronavirus vaccine, with several companies in end-stage trials.
Mainland China reported its first locally transmitted Covid-19 infections in nearly two months. The National Health Commission said in a statement that a total of 13 Covid-19 infections were reported in mainland China on October 12, up from 21 the previous day.
Seven of the new cases were imported infections originating from abroad, while the six local cases were reported in eastern Shandong province, where Qingdao is located.
The last time China reported local broadcasts of Covid-19 was on August 15, when a total of four confirmed cases were reported in Xinjiang.
The total number of Covid-19 infections for mainland China is now 85,591, while the death toll was unchanged at 4,634.
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