As fresh cases of Covid-19 emerged in China’s Wuhan, where the pandemic first broke out, the authorities of the central Chinese have said they would test its entire population for the virus. The Authorities on Monday announced that seven cases of Covid-19 that had been found among migrant workers in the city were locally transmitted.
At a press conference on Tuesday, senior Wuhan official Li Tao said the city of 11 million is swiftly launching comprehensive nucleic acid testing of all residents.
As China battles the Covid-19 cases again after months, the authorities have confined its citizens to their homes, cutting all domestic transport links. It has rolled out mass testing in recent days.
China reported 61 domestic cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday. The fast-spreading Delta variant reached dozens of cities after airport cleaners in Nanjing tested positive for the virus and sparked a chain of cases that have been reported across the country.
Major cities including Beijing have now tested millions of residents and cordoned off the residential compounds, placing close contacts under quarantine. It has also blocked tourists from entering the capital during the peak summer holiday travel season and asked residents not to leave unless necessary.
The eastern city of Yangzhou, near Nanjing, has also ordered its residents to stay home after large-scale testing detected 40 new infections over the past day.
The more than 1.3 million residents of Yangzhou’s urban core are now confined to their homes, with each household allowed to send only one person outside per day to shop for necessities, the city government said Tuesday.
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China had previously boasted of its success in bringing domestic cases down to virtually zero after the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, but the latest outbreak is threatening that success with more than 400 domestic cases reported since mid-July.