Mass testing in Wuhan gathers pace with half the city’s residents tested amid search for asymptomatic cases.
Half of city’s residents screened amid search for asymptomatic cases
Wuhan has accelerated its campaign to conduct nucleic acid tests on all the city’s residents, with half of them already tested for the coronavirus, local health authorities said.
The city conducted 467,847 nucleic acid tests on Monday, up from 335,887 on Sunday and 222,675 on Saturday, the Wuhan health commission said.
Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, started the campaign on May 14 to look for asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 – people who show no clear symptoms despite carrying the virus – after cluster cases were reported on May 10 for the first time since the lockdown of the city was lifted in early April.
The city had conducted nucleic acid tests on more than three million residents before the campaign started, the commission said.
The city and district governments were covering the costs of the tests, so no personal payment was required, it added.
Lu Zuxun, a public health professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said it was remarkable that the city had completed testing on half its residents, demonstrating its capability to contain the virus.
The mass testing effort would help uncover potential sources of infection and reduce the risks as the city further resumed work, production and schooling, he said.
It would also help ease public concerns as the city continued to report new asymptomatic cases each day, Lu added.
A statement issued by the commission said that to minimise cross-infection risks, workers would set up open-air testing sites in residential compounds and remind residents to maintain distance when lining up for the tests.
Door-to-door sampling could be arranged for those who had trouble visiting the testing sites, it said.
News outlet Caixin reported that some regions in the city had combined test samples of five to 10 residents to accelerate the mass testing.
If a mixture of samples tested positive, they would conduct further tests on those people.
Li Shengnan, a nurse at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, said over 200 nurses at the hospital had been conducting around 3,000 tests each per day at residential compounds since May 15.
“Although the weather is already hot and wearing protective equipment from head to toe makes it hotter, we think it is worth it as mass testing will ease people’s worries about the pandemic,” she said.
Li Tianyao, a resident of Wuhan’s Wuchang district, said it was necessary to conduct the mass testing as people were eager to return to their normal lives.
“We can finally move on from the pandemic after all asymptomatic cases are located and properly treated,” she said.
Chen Kebin, a resident of Hongshan district who was tested on Saturday, said he had not been tested before as none of his family members had contracted the virus.
“Some people say it is too costly to conduct tests on all residents, but I don’t think so as the results are key to fully resuming life in the city,” he said.