China to test entire city of 9m people after just 12 test positive for Covid-19

China remains on high alert to clamp down on new outbreaks in bid to prevent further lockdowns

A medical worker wearing a full protective outfit swabs the throat of a journalist during a Covid-19 disease test in a Beijing hotel (EPA)

The city of Qingdao in China’s eastern Shandong province has ordered city-wide coronavirus testing for its entire population of over nine million people after it reported just 12 new cases of the virus.

Authorities said on Monday it will conduct the tests over a five-day period for the city’s whole population after the new infections, half of which are asymptomatic, were reported late on Sunday. Most of the cases were linked to the Qingdao Chest Hospital, which is treating imported infections.

Qingdao’s health authority said in a statement on Chinese social media site Weibo that in the next three days, six million people will be tested in the districts of Shinan, Shibei, Licang, Laoshan and Chengyang.

The rest will be covered over a period of two more days. According to the Global Times, 114,862 medical staff and newly hospitalised patients in the city have been tested, with all results returning negative.

The National Health Commission (NHC) confirmed 21 new Covid-19 cases in mainland China for 11 October, after Qingdao’s announcement, but did not include any confirmed infections in the city. It is not immediately clear why this was the case.

China does not count asymptomatic cases of coronavirus as confirmed cases, but the number of new asymptomatic cases has risen to 32 from 23 a day earlier, said the NHC.

The commission did not provide a breakdown on where the new cases were reported, though it said 29 of these were imported infections.

Qingdao has locked down the hospital linked to the new cases as well as the emergency department of its central hospital. The buildings that the infected individuals live in have also been put under lockdown as part of virus containment measures.

City-wide testing is not unheard of – at the height of the pandemic in May, China tested the entire 11-million-strong population of Wuhan city, where the virus is believed to have first started.

China’s leading infectious disease specialist and head of the Shanghai coronavirus medical team, Zhang Wenhong, said on Monday that Qingdao city could achieve zero Covid-19 infections through expanded testing.

The Global Times reported him as saying that China must maintain current anti-epidemic results while preparing for the gradual reopening up to the rest of the world at the same time.

At the peak of the pandemic in China, the country was reporting several thousand confirmed cases of Covid-19 per day. The cumulative number of infections in mainland China now stands at 85,578, with a death toll of 4,634.

China has largely brought the virus under control, with daily Covid-19 infections falling drastically, but the country remains on high alert to respond to any outbreaks in order to avoid harsh lockdowns such as those seen earlier in the year.