COVID 19: Beijing to test one million people daily

As the second outbreak of coronavirus in Beijing is registering more cases than the first one, the city officials believe they have the resources and capacity to conduct one million coronavirus tests per day.

The outbreak has happened months after the first outbreak in the city, and is registering more cases than the first one.

As the outbreak is believed to have started in the Xinfadi market, the officials were earlier only testing the workers and recent visitors of the market. The testing was later expanded to the neighbouring areas. However, now it has been expanded to include residents in many other parts of the city as well as food and parcel delivery workers.

Also read: China reports 26 new COVID-19 cases including 22 in capital Beijing

The outbreak happened over a week ago in the city of over 20 million, and since the new outbreak, capacity has more than doubled to more than 230,000 tests daily at 124 institutions, Gao Xiaojun, spokesman for the Beijing Health Commission, told a press briefing.

The tests are done on samples collected from multiple people in one test tube, enabling the city to get results from almost 1 million people daily.

The city is also receiving manpower from few other provinces including Hubei and Liaoning, who have sent about 200 people to Beijing to boost staff in laboratories.

(With inputs from Reuters)