Qingdao, China tests all residents after 12 COVID-19 cases

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Health officials in the city of Qingdao are testing every single one of its citizens after 12 new cases of infection were reported.
• The source of the infection was connected to the Qingdao Chest Hospital which is now on lockdown, says a news post on China’s Weibo.
• Authorities project that the ongoing testing process will finish by the end of this week.

Six people showing symptoms, and another six without any, have tested positive for the coronavirus in the city of Qingdao, prompting the city’s health authorities to test every single one of its residents.

Officials have pointed to the Qingdao Chest Hospital, located on China’s eastern coast, as the source of all the new infection cases, says a post by the city’s health commission on China’s social media site Weibo. The hospital, which is about 250 miles southeast of Beijing, has since been closed and gone into lockdown.

Qingdao, a city on the eastern coast of China, has a population of about 9 million, which is higher than New York City and twice as many as Los Angeles. Currently, authorities who are in the process of testing each citizen, is aiming to complete the process by the end of this week — a remarkable feat, but not uncommon in China.

In fact, all citizens in Wuhan, which have a slightly larger population, were tested for the virus in just 10 days during a resurgence of the virus earlier this year.

The newest cases come after 56 days of China not reporting new cases, which comes as a surprise after the entire nation went back to work following an 8-day major holiday that saw millions of Chinese on the move.

Since China managed to take the pandemic under control, about 637 million trips were made over the National Day break where people purchased plane and train tickets to release pent-up frustration after being cooped up in their homes for several months.

Overall, the new twelve cases in China’s official report of coronavirus cases is just a minor issue compared to the data provided by the Chinese government to the World Health Organization, which showed more than 91,000 COVID-19 infections and less than 5,000 deaths.

Source: CBS News