In January, 13 provincial-level regions - Beijing, Tianjin, Sichuan, Fujian, Gansu, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Heilongjiang, Hainan, Qinghai, Zhejiang and Tibet - started to subsidize COVID-19 nucleic acid testing. Nine of these provinces fixed a price ceiling of 80 yuan.
The move comes days after the National Health Commission (NHC) asked local governments to reduce the cost of COVID-19 nucleic acid test to encourage more people to go for the test and return home with a negative certificate before the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 12 this year.
In some regions, local disease control centers provide free-of-charge COVID-19 nucleic acid testing if there is an eruption of coronavirus cases. But for most people traveling out of business and personal reasons, they will have to go to hospitals by themselves for COVID-19 test if their destination regions require a negative nucleic acid test result.
In provinces such as Fujian, Shaanxi and Zhejiang, medical centers and hospitals have adopted a 10-in-1 mixed testing approach to improve efficiency. Under this method, ten throat swabs are collected in one tube for testing, and once a positive result is found in the tube, those ten people are instructed to undergo isolation and testing again one by one to further identify the carrier of the positive sample.
This has further reduced the testing price. In Beijing, Tianjin and Zhejiang, such testing costs 20 yuan per person.