Beijing's mass testing to enter 'fast track' phase

Beijing’s mass testing for the new coronavirus will soon enter a “fast track,” a senior municipal health official said on Tuesday, suggesting that COVID-19 screening in China’s capital is about to gather pace in efforts to curb the latest outbreak.

Beijing reported 13 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases on Monday, the municipal health commission said on Tuesday. The city of more than 20 million residents reported its first case in the latest outbreak on June 11. The infections were linked to Beijing’s sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food center. Since then, 249 people have been infected in Beijing.

Beijing can now administer more than 300,000 nucleic acid tests per day compared with 40,000 in March, said Zhang Hua, deputy director of the Beijing Health Commission.

The capital took samples from 2.95 million people between June 12 and June 22, and a total of 2,422 sample collection points were set up at 480 venues across the city, Zhang said,

More than 7,400 personnel from hospitals, community health service centers, third-party testing agencies, and disease prevention and control departments have participated in sample collection.

Nucleic acid testing is required for those who visited the Xinfadi market or came in contact with the market staff, employees in farm produce markets, restaurants, canteens, food delivery and logistics, people living in medium and high-risk areas, medical staff and front-line personnel, and those in service sectors such as transportation, supermarkets and banking.

A food delivery worker who received an average of 50 orders a day was among the newly infected, said local authorities.