Beijing's Chaoyang district, home to some 3.5 million residents, will roll out three rounds of mass nucleic acid testing starting from Monday after the district registered the most COVID-19 cases in the capital's latest epidemic surge.
The test applies to those who are living and working in the district, which will be conducted respectively on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the Chaoyang disease prevention and control leading team said in a notice on Sunday.
Chaoyang reported 11 new COVID-19 infections from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, taking the total tally within the district since Friday to 26. Among the positive cases were students, teachers and relatives of a middle school. A total of 1,230 people were labeled as close contacts and quarantined.
Two residential communities in Chaoyang district on Sunday were respectively labeled as a high-risk and medium-risk region for COVID-19.
Health experts believed that Beijing has already taken effective and strong measures to prevent the situation from getting worse, and the results of the mass nucleic acid testing will be an index for the capital city to decide whether to take further anti-epidemic measures such as locking down some areas.
Since Friday, the total positive domestically transmitted COVID-19 tally in the capital surged to 42 cases, involving six districts in total.
Among the cases were teachers, students, interior decoration workers, a delivery man, and a chef working at a restaurant, diners and elder people in a tour group.