Shanghai districts face mass COVID-19 testing round from Jul 26 to Jul 28

BEIJING: Shanghai has ordered residents across nine of the city's districts and some smaller areas to do COVID-19 tests from Tuesday (Jul 26) to Thursday, the city government said, as sporadic local cases kept emerging in the Chinese commercial hub.

Shanghai lifted a two-month lockdown in June but has registered double-digit daily cases in recent weeks.

Officials rely on repeated mass testing rounds to identify infections they quickly quarantine to prevent further spread, in line with China's "dynamic zero" strategy that demands each flare-up be contained as quickly as possible.

The fresh testing drive, during which residents in the districts must go through two COVID-19 tests over the three-day period, came after several similar ones earlier this month. Citywide, residents have to get tested at least once a week to maintain access to public venues and transports.

China reported 982 new COVID-19 cases for Jul 23, of which 129 were symptomatic and 853 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.

That compares with 817 new cases a day earlier - 164 symptomatic and 653 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

The bulk of the cases were in the northwestern province of Gansu and the southern region of Guangxi.

In Guangxi for example, which is battling an outbreak in the coastal resort of Beihai, there were 23 new local symptomatic cases, compared with 35 the previous day and 325 new local asymptomatic cases versus 174 the previous day, government data showed.

China's capital, Beijing, recorded no new local infections, government data showed.

There were no new deaths, keeping the nation's death toll at 5,226. As of Saturday, mainland China had confirmed 228,648 cases with symptoms.