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Coronavirus: hospital cluster prompts Chinese city to test all residents
- Qingdao authorities say testing programme under way and should be completed within five days
- City’s chest hospital the epicentre of 12 cases, including a male patient and a carer
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The eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao is testing 9 million residents for the coronavirus after a cluster of 12 cases at a hospital broke the country’s record of 55 days without local transmission.
The city’s health authority said the tests started on Sunday night and should be completed by the end of the week.
“With the active cooperation of the general public, community testing is speeding up. The five urban districts of Shinan, Shibei, Licang, Laoshan and Chengyang will be complete within three days, and the whole population will be tested within five days,” the Qingdao Health Commission said on Monday.
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The first person detected in the cluster was a 58-year-old male patient who was to be admitted as an inpatient of the Qingdao Chest Hospital, and tested positive on Saturday.
A 53-year-old woman carer at the same hospital and her husband, who is a taxi driver, also tested positive on that day.
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Nearly 400 patients, family members and carers in the hospital were tested on Sunday and nine were confirmed as having the virus. Four of those carriers had symptoms and five did not, the commission said.
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