The testing of 11 million residents of Wuhan started Thursday with the city officials saying they plan to finish the campaign within 10 days. The mass testing was decided upon after new cases turned up anew in the city which was the epicenter of the outbreak back in December 2019.
Global attention is on the campaign of which the extent is unprecedented. Health officials worldwide want to see if the goal is possible. Also, apart from stopping another second wave, mass testing is aimed at finding the people who are asymptomatic but are contagious just the same.
The Chinese city used to have a daily testing capacity of 100,000. It also has 63 agencies that can perform nucleic acid tests. For the goal of 11 million people tested in days to be achieved, the city needs to test 730,000 people per day.
Wuhan accounted for more than 80% of China's overall confirmed cases. The city was on lockdown for 76 days during the peak of the outbreak. The national government decided to reopen the city in April. However, new cases this week sparked fears of the second wave of outbreak.
The campaign could cost more than 1 billion yuan but the benefits are larger. When health officials get down to the sources of infection, the city could really return to normal. That would mean jobs for everyone.
On Thursday, despite strong rains residents line up to themselves tested. The priority for the mass testing are people who work in schools, hospitals, transportation, supermarket, government, people returning from overseas, and those who are planning to leave Wuhan to work.
As of May 15, local time in China, health authorities reported four new cases on the mainland. The four cases are local transmissions in Jilin Province. There has also been one new suspected case in Shanghai but the person was found to have a travel history.
The mainland had a total of 1,692 imported cases, as of Thursday. Of that, 46 are still in the hospital.
Eleven new asymptomatic cases were reported, with two persons having travel history in recent weeks. Of the 11 asymptomatic cases, no patients were confirmed to be infectious so far.
There have been no reported deaths this week and 14 patients were discharged from hospitals on May 14. Also, as of Thursday, the mainland reported 82,933 total confirmed cases. The number included 91 patients who are still in the hospital and 78,209 more who were discharged after recovery. The total number of deaths is 4,683.
