China's Wuhan completes citywide testing to curb COVID-19 resurgence

The central Chinese city of Wuhan has completed a round of all-inclusive nucleic acid testing within five days to contain the latest COVID-19 resurgence, local authorities said Sunday.

A medical worker takes a swab sample from a resident for COVID-19 nucleic acid testing at a residential community in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Aug. 3, 2021. (Xinhua/Xiong Qi)

More than 11.28 million residents in the megacity have been tested for the novel coronavirus during the citywide testing that started Tuesday, Li Tao, deputy secretary-general of the Wuhan municipal government, told a press conference on Sunday.

This means a "basically full coverage" of all residents in Wuhan, except for children under six and university students away on summer vacation, according to Li.

The mass testing was launched after new locally transmitted infections emerged among several migrant workers on Monday.

By Saturday, Wuhan had registered 37 locally transmitted confirmed cases and 41 locally transmitted asymptomatic carriers in the latest outbreak.

Peng Houpeng, deputy director of the municipal health commission, said nine of the infections were found in the mass screening of residential compounds under closed-off management, while the other cases were found among quarantined close contacts.

Hit hard by COVID-19 in early 2020, Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, was the world's first megacity to complete a comprehensive nucleic acid testing campaign, testing nearly 10 million residents in 19 days at the height of the pandemic.

Hard hit by COVID-19 in early 2020, Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, was the world's first megacity to complete a comprehensive nucleic acid-testing campaign last year.

The city had not reported any locally transmitted COVID-19 infections for over a year.