COVID-19: Wuhan to conduct city-wide testing over 10-day period amid fears of second wave

Wuhan, the Chinese city from where the deadly coronavirus emerged, will now be reportedly conducting citywide testing for all citizens. According to an international media report, within the next 10 days, the authorities will be testing every citizen in the city as they fear a second wave of infections. The authorities reportedly announced that the testing plan in an ‘emergency notice’. 

The notice reportedly read that the officials, after research, decided to carry out a ’10-day-battle for the screening of nucleic acids of all new coronavirus in Wuhan. The notice further also informed that each district will also be making an arrangement for the nuclei acid screening for all staff in its jurisdiction with a 10-day period. The new measures come as six new infections recently emerged in the city. As per reports, the ‘emergency notice’ was issued to strengthen social prevention and control, prevent the rebound of the epidemic and strengthen the normalisation of epidemic prevention and control.

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Meanwhile, with the emergence of new coronavirus cases, a local official in the city was also reportedly sacked due to his ‘poor management’. The sacked official was Zhang Yixin and was the secretary and member of the Changqing Street working committee of the ruling Communist Party of China. The officials also blamed Zhang as they believe that he didn’t ‘close-off’ properly and took control of the residential community, which had previously reported only 20 COVID-19 cases. 

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Asymptomatic cases can create problem

While Wuhan remained free from infections fro 35 days, the new cases have raised concerns regarding a potential second wave of the epidemic. Wuhan’s health authority in a statement also said that the task of epidemic prevention and control in the city is still very heavy, warning about the risk of a rebound. All the new confirmed cases were earlier classified as asymptomatic which were not included in the overall tally of confirmed coronavirus cases. 

With only 115 active coronavirus cases in the country, the authorities now believe that the rising number of asymptomatic cases can create a problem for the authorities who are planning to further ease restrictions to return to normalcy. A top Chinese health expert had said that the government will focus on testing people from high-risk group and areas.

(Image credit: AP)

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