E-Paper
Wuhan on ‘10-day-battle’ to test all for Covid-19 after cluster infection
The city’s government issued a directive late on Monday, directing local health authorities to carry out nucleic acid test for its 11 million residents over the next 10 days.
The central Chinese city of Wuhan where the coronavirus first emerged late last year will test all its citizens for the virus after six new cases were reported over the weekend for the first time since early April.
The city’s government issued a directive late on Monday, directing local health authorities to carry out nucleic acid test for its 11 million residents over the next 10 days.
The province of Hubei and its capital Wuhan have reported over 68000 (50339 in Wuhan) of the nearly 83000 Covid-19 cases in China.
Coronavirus outbreak: Full coverage
The virus has killed 3869 in the city, state media outlet, The Paper, reported.
As many as 4633 people have died in China of Covid-19.
The city reported its first cluster infection in a community for the first time since the strict lockdown implemented on January 23 was lifted on April 8.
The housing complex where the cluster case was discovered had earlier reported a total of 20 confirmed Covid-19 cases, and authorities said the new cluster could be linked to “past community infection.”
According to the Sixth Tone news website, the government official in charge of the area in Dongxihu district where the six cases were detected was sacked Monday for “ineffective lockdown and control management.”
According to the directive (in Chinese), the key focus of the nucleic acid tests should “…on old communities, densely populated communities, and areas with concentrated floating population. The scope of the investigation should include permanent residents and floating population in the jurisdiction”.
Among the first to be tested are the 5,000 are residents in and around Sanmin residential community, where the cluster was discovered, and another 14,000 from the nearby market named Duoluokou.
The new cluster case has triggered a fear of a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in the city, which was lifting restrictions in a staggered way in the past one month.
Meanwhile, a laundry worker in northeast China’s Jilin province is likely to have infected a dozen others with the coronavirus after she was infected by contaminated clothes during her work, experts have told Chinese state media.
According to the tabloid, Global Times, the 45-year-old woman is said to have worked at a laundry service for a local public security bureau in Shulan city where officers had close contact with visitors from Russia between April 8 and 30.
The virus has now spread from the woman to her husband, three sisters, other family members and close contacts of those confirmed cases, according to the local health authority.
The city of around 630000 people have been put under a partial lockdown since Saturday.
