Coronavirus: China’s Wuhan ‘nearly doubles’ number of tests per day

City looks asymptomatic carriers after confirming first Covid cluster last weekend since release from lockdown

A young man wearing a face mask makes soap bubbles on the banks of the Yangtze River in Wuhan. Photograph: HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images
A young man wearing a face mask makes soap bubbles on the banks of the Yangtze River in Wuhan. Photograph: HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese city of Wuhan conducted 222,675 nucleic acid tests on May 16th, Wuhan, nearly doubling from a day earlier, the local health authority said on Sunday.

The city, where the coronavirus outbreak originated, kicked off a campaign on May 14th to look for asymptomatic carriers – people who are infected but show no outward sign of illness – after confirming last weekend its first cluster of Covid-19 infections since its release from a lockdown on April 8th.

The reported number of tests carried out on May 16th in the city of 11 million residents was more than the 186,400 tests conducted on May 14th-15th, and was also the highest since the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission started publishing the data on February 21st.

Wuhan is conducting the testing on a voluntary basis.

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Residents who were previously tested do not need to participate in the campaign. Those who test positive now will be notified as soon as possible.

No confirmed cases with symptoms were identified from May 14th to 16th, although 28 new asymptomatic carriers were found, according to daily reports published by the Wuhan health authority. – Reuters