Covid-19: China tests entire city for the second time this month

China has undertaken mass testing on an entire city after a Covid-19 regional outbreak in Xinjiang province.
The testing comes after a woman working in a garment factory on the outskirts of Kashgar city tested positive.
About 4.7 million people in Kashgar are going to be tested with 138 cases having been detected so far.

Schools have been closed in Kashgar while residents are prohibited from leaving the house unless they have a negative covid-19 test report.

Testing started on Saturday with the government reporting more than 2.8 million tests being done by Sunday afternoon. The testing process is anticipated to be completed by Tuesday, October 27.

Xinjiang is a region inhabited by the Uighur community a minority Muslim population that rights group have claimed is being cleansed by the Communist Party of China (CPC). 

Mass detention camps and heavy surveillance in Xinjiang targeting the Uighur Muslims has led to a lot of pressure from international human rights bodies as people go missing while those who come out of the camps tell tales of torture and indoctrination. China maintains that they run “Re-education centres”.

This is the second mass testing this month after 9 million people were tested in Qingdoa metropolis after six positive and six asymptomatic cases were discovered on October 12.

China has been successful in controlling the untamed spread of the virus which is proving to be a painful headache for most countries. However, the country is still witnessing pockets of outbreaks that threaten to increase its current 85,810 caseloads and 4,634 fatalities.

The country’s success can be credited to strict protocols, wearing masks, intense contact tracing, and containment measures.

In May, a lockdown of the entire city of Wuhan which is believed to be ground zero of the pandemic saw an entire city of 11 million people tested in 10 days.