Eastern China conducts extensive COVID-19 testing to control virus waves

CHINA: Fresh rounds of mass COVID-19 testing are taking place in eastern China as the country risks new outbreaks and continues to recover from spring outbreaks that affected Beijing and Shanghai.

The “dynamic COVID zero” approach of China’s government calls on local authorities to detect and contain new infections as quickly as possible, although the country has advised against overly restrictive measures as it works to recover the economy.

Over the weekend, China’s daily numbers of locally transmitted diseases surged to more than 300, up from a few dozen at the end of June. Local officials have shut down certain companies and detained more than a million individuals, despite the country’s relatively small size.

Hefei, the provincial capital of Anhui, stated late on Sunday (July 3) that it is now conducting citywide testing every three days after briefly eliminating weekly test requirements last month. Anhui has reported the majority of China’s local cases in the most recent flare-up.

This is the fourth time that the 760,000 residents of Anhui’s Si town have been forced to stay inside their homes except to go out and take the COVID-19 test.

Nearly 1 million people in Lingbi, a town in Anhui province, were put on lockdown and a meeting between local companies and government officials was called off.

Massive testing was conducted in Fujian’s Jiaocheng district and the city of Ningde on Sunday.

According to data released by the Fujian health authorities on Monday, the city of Ningde, home to the world’s largest battery manufacturer CATL, reported 10 domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections on Sunday.

The National Health Commission of China said on Monday that a total of 380 new local infections were detected in China on July 3; 41 of these infections were symptomatic and 339 were not.

Anhui, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Fujian, Shandong, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Sichuan provinces, as well as the metropolis of Shanghai, have all been found to be infected.

This brings the total number of documented deaths in the United States to 5,226.