This archive report was first published on 12 May 2020.
China's Wuhan city, the epicenter of the global pandemic, is taking drastic measures to contain the spread of Covid-19. The city plans to conduct mass testing on its entire population of 11 million people after new cases emerged for the first time in weeks, state media reported on May 12, 2020.
According to an official notice, each district in Wuhan has been ordered to submit plans to administer nucleic acid tests on all residents within a 10-day time limit. The notice, carried by news outlets, did not specify when the testing would begin.
The mass testing comes after Wuhan reported six new Covid-19 cases on Sunday and Monday from a residential compound in Dongxihu District. The cases marked the first cluster of new infections since the city re-opened after a 76-day lockdown on April 8.
China has largely brought the virus under control, but it remains on edge about being hit by a second wave as it lifts lockdowns and restrictions across the country. Virus clusters have appeared in recent weeks in the northeastern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang, which border Russia.
