China to test Wuhan’s 11 million residents amid new Covid outbreak

Anuj Pant
·2 min read
File: This photo taken on 19 January 2021 shows a general view of traffic stopped at a red light on a street in Wuhan, China (AFP via Getty Images)
File: This photo taken on 19 January 2021 shows a general view of traffic stopped at a red light on a street in Wuhan, China (AFP via Getty Images)

China’s Wuhan city, the first in the world to report coronavirus cases, will undergo a mass testing programme for its entire 11 million population, authorities said on Tuesday.

Wuhan, a provincial capital where the virus was first reported in 2019, reported three new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on Monday after more than a year, reported the Associated Press (AP).

The city had last year been under strict lockdown for 76 days. The measures that had been taken to curb the spread of the virus that has been replicated in several parts of the world.

“To ensure that everyone in the city is safe, city-wide nucleic acid testing will be quickly launched for all people to fully screen out positive results and asymptomatic infections,” Li Qiang, an official in the city, the capital of central Hubei province, told a news briefing.

Authorities in China are grappling to keep the virus spread in check through measures such as mass city-wide testing in order to isolate those with the infection.

The current outbreaks in the country, as in several other parts of the world, are being fuelled by the resurgent Delta variant that was first identified in India.

Several of the new local cases in China have been reported from the Jiangsu province, with the cases having been linked to Nanjing city’s airport. This outbreak, that emerged after a plane from Russia landed at the airport, has since spread to Yangzhou city, 105 kilometres away.

Authorities on Tuesday said there were 45 new cases in the province, with five from Nanjing and 40 from Yangzhou.

There were 90 new cases across China, with 61 local infections and 29 from abroad, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday.

Authorities had earlier tested residents of Nanjing thrice and imposed a lockdown for its 9.2 million residents, reported the BBC.

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