Coronavirus in China: Xinjiang counties carry out mass testing for a fourth time in 12 days
- All residents of Shufu and Aktau, in China’s far west, are to be tested again amid fresh outbreak
- Authorities made the decision after hundreds of asymptomatic cases were detected
Authorities made the decision after 116 people tested positive without symptoms in the previous round of testing, which ended on Tuesday night. All of those infections were linked to the township where the first case was reported on October 24.
Wang Xijiang, deputy director of the Kashgar Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said frequent testing was needed to detect cases early so that the outbreak could be swiftly brought under control.
He said asymptomatic patients could test positive at different stages of the incubation period.
“Nucleic acid testing is the gold standard for confirming infections, and it is also the most important method for detecting and identifying asymptomatic infections,” Wang said. “To get the epidemic under control as soon as possible, we will launch a fourth round of free nucleic acid testing for all residents in Shufu county on November 4.”