China’s big city plan for Covid testing just a 15-minute walk away
- Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan says testing booths will be within easy reach for all residents in the country’s major cities
- The strategy was first used in economic and tech hub Shenzhen, which controlled an outbreak in March with one week of lockdown
According to state news agency Xinhua, Sun told the cabinet the government should rally behind President Xi Jinping’s edict by “unswervingly enforcing the dynamic zero policy … to make sure the outbreaks are manageable and to create a favourable environment for a successful 20th party congress”.
Other measures include the building of more makeshift hospitals and quarantine facilities, which can be ready within 24 hours as needed, and stepping up vaccinations for the elderly.
Shenzhen, in the southern province of Guangdong, was the first city to set up testing booths within the newly mandated 15-minute walking distance. The economic and tech hub started building nucleic testing sites when it reported a couple of dozen new daily cases in mid-March.
The booths – located in residential areas, inside the CBD, industrial and hi-tech parks, as well as outdoor public facilities such as parks and stadiums – operate at lunchtime and after working hours to encourage office workers to get tested.