Wuhan plans citywide nucleic acid testing in next 10 days after new cases emerge

The Wuhan city administration beefing up its measures for preventing and controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and all residents of the capital city of central China's Hubei Province will be required to take nucleic acid tests in the next 10 days.

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The decision came after six new cases of coronavirus were reported in Wuhan over the weekend.

A month after coronavirus lockdown was lifted in the city where the global pandemic began a cluster of new infections seems to be sparking authorities into a wave of mass-testing.

All of the latest cases in Wuhan were previously classified as asymptomatic, people who test positive for the virus and are capable of infecting others but do not show clinical signs.

Hundreds of asymptomatic cases in Wuhan, which was released on April 8 from a months-long lockdown, are being monitored.

On average, the city has conducted about 47,000 nucleic acid tests each day since the lockdown was lifted, Reuters calculations based on reports by Wuhan’s health authority show.

New outbreaks in China in the past two months have mainly developed in residential compounds or hospitals, while the number of asymptomatic cases is not known, as these only appear on the radar when they show up positive during tests.

(With inputs from Reuters)