Wuhan plans to test all 11 million residents for COVID-19 after 6 new cases are recorded
pharmafile | May 12, 2020 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â COVID-19, coronavirus, pandemicÂ
The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus originated, plans to test all of its residents after 6 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported over the weekend.
Previously, there had been no new cases since 3 April, and the city began reopening on 8 April. The new cluster of cases all emerged from the same residential compound.
Every district in the city has been ordered to draw up a 10-day testing plan, and each is responsible for designing their own plan based on the size of their population and whether or not there is currently an active outbreak in the district. The local government has also ordered older people to be tested as a priority and densely populated areas should also be focused on.
However, the feasibility of testing 11 million people has come into question. Some suggest that between 3 and 5 million people have already been tested so that would leave between 6-8 million who need testing, which is a more realistic goal. Peng Zhiyong, the Director of the intensive care unit of the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, said that testing probably would not be carried out on the entire population, instead focusing on priority groups.
China reported one new case on Monday, bringing the total number of cases to 82,919 with a death toll of 4,633. While China has brought in strict and effective measures to combat the pandemic, there is widespread scrutiny of these numbers in the international community who suspect China may be hiding the real numbers of infected and dead.
Conor Kavanagh
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