China to test entire 9 million Qingdao city population during the next 5 days after COVID-19 cases emerge

[beijingwalker]

China to test entire 9 million Qingdao city population during the next 5 days after COVID-19 cases emerge
The coastal city will test all nine million residents during the next five days with some areas locked down.

12 Oct 2020

Authorities in China’s Qingdao said on Monday they would test the city’s entire population of more than nine million people for COVID-19 during the next five days, after new cases appeared linked to a hospital treating people who had been confirmed with the disease after returning from overseas.

The coastal city, nearly 700km (435 miles) southeast of Beijing, reported six new COVID-19 cases and six asymptomatic cases as of late October 11 with most of the cases linked to the Qingdao Chest Hospital.

China has extensive, quick test capabilities and the health commission said more than 140,000 employees of “medical institutions, newly admitted patients and personnel” had been tested in Qingdao since the cases were confirmed.

After the announcement, the National Health Commission (NHC) said mainland China had 21 confirmed COVID-19 cases on October 11. The report did not , but not include any confirmed infections in Qingdao, and it was not immediately clear why.

The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not count as confirmed cases, rose to 32 from 23 a day earlier, the NHC said. It did not offer a breakdown on where the new asymptomatic cases were reported, although it said 29 of these cases involved people returning from overseas.

The coronavirus first emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year, and the city and its surrounding province of Hubei were sealed off after cases surged towards the end of January.


China has bounced back since then and daily COVID-19 cases have fallen drastically from those peaks, but the country remains on high alert.

In June, large areas of Beijing were subject to mass tests after the capital, which is home to more than 20 million people, detected virus cases linked to a food market.

Qingdao has already locked down Qingdao Chest Hospital as well as the emergency department of its central hospital. The buildings where those diagnosed with the disease live have also been sealed off as part of the authorities’ containment measures.

China is also eager to be first to roll out a coronavirus vaccine, with several companies in final-stage trials. Although unproven, vaccines have already been administered to hundreds of thousands of key workers and soldiers.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 85,578, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.

China to test entire city of Qingdao after COVID-19 cases emerge

The coastal city will test all nine million residents during the next five days with some areas locked down.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[beijingwalker]

One-third of Chinese city of 9 million swabbed for virus in two days

13 October 2020, MVT

More than three million swabs have been taken in a matter of days in Qingdao, the Chinese port city where a minor coronavirus outbreak elicited a sweeping health response.

Queues for testing stretched deep into Monday night across the eastern city, which detected six virus cases the day before but swiftly swung into action to head off a wider outbreak.

In scenes which contrast with the fumbled efforts of other nations to establish effective testing regimes, Qingdao health workers in protective gear set up tents to take samples across neighbourhoods, where parents brought toddlers for testing.

Residents said on social media that community representatives informed them of their nearest testing stations, with local districts helping to organise sample collection for mass testing.

"As of 8 am... our city has taken 3.08 million samples for nucleic testing, with 1.11 million results received," Qingdao's health commission said in a statement Tuesday.

In addition to six people with symptoms, there six asymptomatic cases have been detected so far.

The city declared it aims to test its entire population -- around 9.4 million -- within five days of the detection of the first cases at a hospital on Sunday.

It was not immediately clear how fast results could be processed, although China has paraded its rapid testing capacities during previous minor outbreaks.

China's ruling Communist Party is desperate to show its ability to manage the pandemic to its citizens -- as well as to foreign audiences -- after it emerged in the central city of Wuhan.

The country has bounced back since the virus emerged late last year and forced widespread lockdowns that hammered the world's second-largest economy.

China is also desperate to be the first nation to produce a coronavirus vaccine, with several companies in final-stage trials.

 

[zectech]

Get the new cases Traditional Chinese Medicine. Along with other treatments.

 

[obj 705A]

Queues for testing stretched deep into Monday night across the eastern city,

wow this is actually quite stupid, now even some of the healthy ones would get infected because they all gathered in queues like that.

now I understand why the government was hiding it in the first month or so, seeing as how so many coward people panic like that to the point were they would gather and do more harm to themselves and to others.

since just six cases were enough to scare the living sh*t of them frankly I believe Beijing should try to tell the doctors not to make the infection figures public because some people panic just way too much to the point they actually start spreading virus.

 

[zectech]

wow this is actually quite stupid, now even some of the healthy ones would get infected because they all gathered in queues like that.

now I understand why the government was hiding it in the first month or so, seeing as how so many coward people panic like that to the point were they would gather and do more harm to themselves and to others.

since just six cases were enough to scare the living sh*t of them frankly I believe Beijing should try to tell the doctors not to make the infection figures public because some people panic just way too much to the point they actually start spreading virus.

I would advise not to, USA is itching for China to make a mistake of allowing something. They are also itching for a 'second wave' from China.