Wuhan to test entire 11m population after fresh coronavirus outbreak
The Chinese city of Wuhan, ground zero in the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, is planning a citywide testing drive over the next 10 days after a fresh outbreak.
According to a document seen by Reuters every district of the city has been told to submit a detailed testing plan by today.
The city of 11m people reported its first cluster of new infections over the weekend following the lifting of its 11-week lockdown on 8 April.
Wuhan had begun to return to normal life after coronavirus, with schools and businesses reopening and public transport resuming.
However, the cluster of new cases centred on one residential block has raised the spectre of a fresh wave of infections.
Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University, told the Global Times the city had already tested a large proportion of residents for coronavirus.
“About three to five million residents have been tested and proved healthy, and thus Wuhan is capable to test the remaining six to eight million in 10 days,” he said.
Last month Wuhan raised its official death toll from coronavirus by 50 per cent to 3,869, state TV reported.
The city was where the novel coronavirus first infected humans after scientists believed the virus may have spread from animals.
And Wuhan has added another 1,290 coronavirus victims on top of the 2,570 previously counted, reflecting delays, omissions and incorrect reporting, state TV said.
The revisions follow widespread speculation that Wuhan’s coronavirus death toll was much higher than acknowledged. There were reports of long queues of family members waiting to collect ashes from mortuaries and thousands of empty urns delivered to funeral homes.
“In the early stage, due to limited hospital capacity and the shortage of medical staff, a few medical institutions failed to connect with local disease control and prevention systems in a timely manner, which resulted in delayed reporting of confirmed cases and some failures to count patients accurately,” state broadcaster CGTN quoted an unidentified Wuhan official as saying.