The Chinese city of Qingdao will test 9 million people over the next five days as the port city has seen 12 local cases of COVID-19, CNN reports.
- China has been reportedly coronavirus free since about the middle of August. Most cases have been reported to have come from outside the country.
- Qingdao has about 12 COVID-19 cases right now, linking back to a hospital for imported infections, according to CNN.
- Testing has already started. it began at the Qingdao Chest Hospital, which has been under lockdown. The rest of testing will spread to the 9 million throughout the city in the next few days, according to CNN.
Why it matters:
Increased testing has been a successful strategy for China in containing the coronavirus, which is believed to have started in a wet market in Wuhan, China, which I wrote about for Deseret.com way back in January.
In May, China tested the entire city of Wuhan, which is home to 11 million people, to stop the spread of the coronavirus, BBC News reports.
- “The country has largely brought the virus under control,” according to BBC News. “That is in stark contrast to other parts of the world, where there are still high case numbers and lockdown restrictions of varying severity.”