China's Wuhan to test its entire population for Coronavirus as cases re-emerge
Synopsis
In a press conference, Wuhan official Li Tao said the city of 11 million is "swiftly launching comprehensive nucleic acid testing of all residents".
On Tuesday, authorities in China's Wuhan said that they would test its entire population for coronavirus after the city where the virus emerged reported its first local infections in more than a year. In a press conference, Wuhan official Li Tao said the city of 11 million is "swiftly launching comprehensive nucleic acid testing of all residents".
Authorities also informed that seven locally transmitted cases had been found among migrant workers, breaking a year-long streak without domestic cases after it squashed an initial outbreak with lockdown in early 2020.
To contain the spread of the new Delta variant, China has confined residents of their cities to their homes, have limited domestic airport links and rolled out mass testing.
On Tuesday, China reported 61 domestic cases as an outbreak of the fast-spreading Delta variant after infections among airport cleaners in Nanjing sparked a break out of the cases.
Meanwhile, major cities, including Beijing, have tested millions and cordoned off residential areas and placing close contact under isolation.
Recently, the eastern city of Yangzhou was the latest local government to order residents to stay home after testing detected at least 40 new cases. Yangzhou's urban population, approx 1.3 million residents, are confined to home, with one person per home allowed to go out to shop fr necessities.
The announcement comes after the tourist destination of Zhangjiajie in central China's Hunan province and nearby Zhuzhou city-issued similar orders in recent days to more than two million people combined.
Meanwhile, Beijing has blocked tourists from entering the capital during the peak summer holiday travel season and asked residents not to leave unless necessary. Previously, China had boasted its success in bringing domestic cases down to virtually zero after the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, allowing the economy to rebound.