China conducts Corona tests for all Shanghai residents

China has sent the army and thousands of health care workers to Shanghai to help conduct COVID-19 tests for all its 26 million residents, as the number of coronavirus infections continued to rise Monday.

Some residents awoke before dawn for their white-clad health care workers to administer a throat swab for DNA, and many lined up in pajamas two meters apart for social distancing.

A newspaper affiliated with the Chinese armed forces reported that the army on Sunday sent more than 2,000 medical personnel from various departments of the army, navy and joint logistic support forces to Shanghai.

So far, 38,000 health care workers from provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and the capital, Beijing, have arrived in Shanghai, according to state media, which showed their arrival by high-speed train and plane, wearing masks and carrying suitcases.

It is the largest public health operation in China since it dealt with the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus was first detected in late 2019. At that time, the Chinese army sent more than 4,000 personnel to the country, the State Council said. Health Department to Hubei Province, where Wuhan is located.

Shanghai, which began a two-stage lockdown on March 28 and was extended to require all residents to stay at home, recorded 8,581 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and 425 asymptomatic cases on April 3.

It also asked citizens to take self-exams on Sunday.

The operation in China's most populous city came on the eve of Shanghai initially announcing that it planned to lift restrictions related to the lockdown.

A senior Chinese health official was reported last month that the country has 12,400 institutions capable of testing up to 900 million people daily.

The city has also converted several hospitals, gymnasiums, apartment buildings and other places into central quarantine sites, including the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center which can accommodate 15,000 patients at full capacity.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news