Qingdao to conduct city-wide nucleic acid testing for Covid-19 after fresh cases emerged in the city over the weekend.
Health officials on alert after recent Covid-19 cases
The city of Qingdao in east China’s Shandong province has activated a plan to conduct citywide nucleic acid testing for Covid19 after new cases were reported recently.
The city will complete nucleic acid testing in five districts within the next three days while the testing will cover the whole city in five days, according to a notice issued by the municipal health commission, adding that the results will be released in a timely manner.
Starting from 7am yesterday, the residents of a community in the city’s Shinan district began to line up at a testing point to receive nucleic acid testing.
They were notified to undergo the testing on Sunday evening.
“It took about 20 minutes to wait before I was able to take the test.
“It’s a responsible move to conduct tests for ourselves and for others too,” said a local resident surnamed Wang.
Qingdao has reported six new confirmed cases and six new asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 since fresh cases emerged in the city over the weekend, the municipal health commission said.
Epidemiological investigations found that the cases were linked to Qingdao Chest Hospital, which had been used to treat imported Covid19 patients.
China has quick and extensive testing capabilities and the health commission said over 140,000 employees of “medical institutions, newly admitted patients and personnel” had already been tested in Qingdao since the cases were confirmed.
In June, large areas of the capital Beijing were subject to mass tests after the city of more than 20 million detected coronavirus cases linked to a food market.
China has bounced back since the virus emerged late last year and forced widespread lockdowns that hammered the world’s second-largest economy.
Hundreds of millions of people travelled across China for the “Golden Week” holiday last week as the country edges back to growth, while rapid tests and swift lockdowns have tamped down secondary waves of the virus.