BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th October, 2020) The authorities of the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao said on Monday that they would conduct coronavirus testing among the entire population of nearly 9.5 million people amid the resurgence of cases.
This past Sunday, three asymptomatic cases were detected in a local hospital in Qingdao, prompting the authorities to conduct tests among 377 close contacts of these three cases. The testing found another five asymptomatic cases and and four cases with symptoms. Two of the asymptomatic cases later developed symptoms, which brought Qingdao's toll to six asymptomatic cases and six cases with symptoms.
"We developed and launched a universal testing program. With the active collaboration of the general public, the testing proceeds at an accelerated pace. Within three days, we will test residents of five districts, including Shinan, Shibei, Licang, Laoshan and Chengyang. Within five days, the entire population of the city will be tested. The results will be released in a timely manner," the Qingdao Health Committee said in a statement.
So far, nearly 144,000 workers of medical facilities and new patients in hospitals across Qingdao were tested. The results of 11,862 people already came back negative, while the rest is pending.
China was the world's first country to report cases of "mysterious pneumonia," which the World Health Organization later confirmed to be a new strain of a coronaivirus, last December. Beginning in April, the Chinese authorities stopped including asymptomatic cases in their official COVID-19 toll.
As of Monday, China reported 85,578 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 4,634 deaths and 80,714 recoveries.
