Wuhan plans to test all 11 million residents for coronavirus after new cases
12 May 2020, 12:15
The entire population of Wuhan will be tested for coronavirus after new cases were confirmed in the Chinese city despite a strict lockdown.
According to state media, all 11 million people will be tested for Covid-19 after six new cases were reported there over the weekend.
The cases are all said to have come from the same residential compound.
They were the first in over a month, despite a 76-day lockdown enforced to try and eliminate the virus.
Districts are reportedly being asked to submit plans to tests all residents within ten days by today, according to The Paper.
They had already been testing 47,000 people a day, on average.
The city was put on lockdown on 23 January and began re-opening on 8 April, but the new cases have threatened a second wave.
The news came as the UK's death toll passed 38,000, according to new data from the Office of National Statistics.
State media said Zhang Yuxin, chief official of Changqing, the area where the new cases had been detected, had been removed from his post "for failures in epidemic prevention and control work."
China has not reported a new death from the virus in almost a month.
In total, it has recorded 4,633 deaths among 82,919 cases since the virus was first detected in Wuhan last year.
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The National Health Commission also said 115 people remain in treatment and 763 are being isolated and monitored as either suspected cases or after testing positive for the virus without showing symptoms.
The outbreak began in Wuhan in December, with the virus first identified as a new type of coronavirus on 8 January.
China’s first death came three days later, before cases were confirmed elsewhere on 20 January and the virus began to spread.
