Wuhan Reports Less Infections

The Chinese town where the coronavirus originated on Tuesday reported that widespread monitoring attempts for approximately 11 million citizens lead to just 300 new infections, all asymptomatic.

A Wuhan official confirmed Tuesday that the region had conducted 9.9 million checks from May 14 to June 1. Wuhan also found no infections among 1,174 close contacts of the 300 people tested positive, suggesting that it was not easily spread to others, according to the Associated Press.

“It not only makes the people of Wuhan feel at ease, it also increases people’s confidence in all of China,” Feng Zijian, vice director of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state broadcaster CCTV.

According to government estimates, Wuhan is by far the most badly affected region in China, comprising around 80 percent of the country ‘s deaths.

If these were checked previously, almost anyone above the age of 5 has been screened in a town of 11 million, said Li Lanjuan, a team of experts on the National Health Council.

“The city of Wuhan is safe,” she said at a news conference with city officials.

The initiative was initiated after the detection of a minor cluster of cases in a residential complex, which sparked fears about a potential second wave of infections as Wuhan emerged from a 2.5-month lockdown.

The industrial city on the Yangtze River in central China spent about $125 million on tests, according to the official Xinhua News Agency, citing a Wuhan official.
Rapid screening with too many individuals was made feasible in part by batch research, in which tests with up to five persons were combined together, Xinhua said. Unless the outcome is good, individuals would be checked separately.

National services have also been mobilized to assist, said Wang Weihua, Deputy Director of the Wuhan Health Board, according to Xinhua. Together, these measures expanded Wuhan’s regular test potential from 300,000 to more than one million, she added.