Testing for city of 9 million

SHANGHAI/BEIJING: China’s Qingdao city yesterday said it will conduct Covid19 tests for the entire population of more than 9 million people over five days after new cases appeared linked to a hospital treating imported infections.

The city reported six new Covid19 cases and six asymptomatic cases as of late Sunday. Most were linked to the Qingdao Chest Hospital.

The National Health Commission’s (NHC) tally of 21 confirmed Covid19 cases in mainland China for Sunday was published after Qingdao’s announcement, but did not include any confirmed infections in the city and it was not immediately clear why.

The number of new asymptomatic cases, which

China does not count as confirmed cases, rose to 32 from 23 a day earlier, the NHC said. It did not offer a breakdown on where the new asymptomatic cases were reported, but said 29 of these cases were imported infections.

Daily Covid19 infections in mainland China have fallen drastically from peaks early this year, but the country remains on high alert in order to prevent painful lockdowns that led to an outright contraction of the world’s No 2 economy.

Qingdao had locked down Qingdao Chest Hospital as well as the emergency department of its central hospital. Buildings infected individuals lived in had also been locked down. China had 85,578 confirmed cases and a death toll of 4634. — Reuters