Nanjing rolls out more tests as China’s latest coronavirus cluster grows
- 2 more cases added, taking total in city’s cluster to 57
- Health authorities embark on a second round of mass testing of all citizens and travellers
Yang Dasuo, deputy director of the Nanjing Health Commission, said on Sunday that more than 9.2 million samples were collected in three days of mass testing, and of the 57 cases now in the city, 20 were asymptomatic carriers.
Further tests were under way, he said.
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The cluster in Nanjing broke out last week when more than a dozen cases were reported by Thursday, most of whom were cleaners at Nanjing Lukou International Airport.
In addition to Jiangsu province, cases related to the cluster have been found in Guangdong, Liaoning, Anhui and Sichuan.
Yang said after the mass testing, lockdown measures were scaled up, with mandatory temperature checks and registration at venues via a local health code back in effect.
He said some members of residential communities would be confined to home isolation if cases were detected in those communities, with daily necessities and groceries delivered by state-employed community workers.
On Thursday, commission director Fang Zhongyou said the source of the airport cluster had been identified through initial genome sequencing.
He did not elaborate but suggested the cluster appeared to be related to an imported case.
Airport management said staff in “key posts” were being tested every three days instead of weekly. Testing will also be more frequent at Shenzhen’s international airport, with frontline workers told to avoid contact with the public where possible.
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While China is largely free of Covid-19, breakthrough infections have been detected among high-risk groups, especially at airports and hospitals whose workers were among the first to be vaccinated.
But unlike many other countries that are slowly opening up their borders, China has kept tight limits on inbound travellers and insisted on a “zero-tolerance” policy on coronavirus cases within its border.
