Wuhan's entire population to be tested for COVID-19: Details here
What's the story
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus pandemic started, has ordered officials to test its entire population of 11 million for the disease. The move from the authorities comes in response to the discovery of new infection cases for the first time since the city controlled the outbreak and lifted its lockdown. Here's all you need to know about it.
Plan
Plan to test 11 million in 10 days
According to reports from Chinese and US media outlets, Wuhan plans to conduct city-wide nucleic acid tests over a span of 10 days. For this, the authorities have ordered all districts in the city to submit a comprehensive plan detailing how they want to carry out the tests on everyone in their respective areas within the given time-frame.
Submission
Districts to submit testing strategy by Tuesday
The districts have been told to submit the testing strategy by Tuesday, with a priority on checking those in vulnerable groups and in areas like residential compounds first. Notably, the plan to test the whole city was revealed from an internal document of Wuhan's anti-virus department. However, the authority itself has not commented on the development yet.
Infections
Wuhan recently reported first new COVID-19 cluster
The move to start with city-wide testing comes just a few days after Wuhan reported new COVID-19 infections for the first time since its months-long lockdown was lifted last month. Going by the reports, the fresh cluster included as many as six people who were already under quarantine in a single residential compound. They all were asymptomatic before being detected positive.
First outbreak
China enforced lockdown on January 23 to fight COVID-19
When COVID-19 started wreaking havoc in Wuhan the first time around, the city had to lock down its entire population to contain the spread. The restrictions were enforced on January 23 and were active till April 8, a nearly four-month-long period that saw over 4,000 alleged deaths. Now, by carrying out aggressive city-wide tests, Wuhan hopes to rule out the possibility of another outbreak.