Urumqi completes COVID-19 testing on 1 million people

More than 1 million people in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, have undergone free nucleic acid tests as of Tuesday, local authorities said.

The city plans to provide free nucleic acid tests for about 4 million people, including all its residents and people who are visiting the city, after it reported locally transmitted COVID-19 cases recently.

The testing is being carried out in phases, starting from high-risk regions, and the city's testing capacity on Wednesday is expected to reach 600,000 people with 24 nucleic acid testing centers in place so far, according to a regional daily press conference Wednesday.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, residents in Urumqi have stayed at home to avoid gathering and cross infection, which contains the spread of the epidemic, said Rui Baoling, director of the city's center for disease control and prevention.

By Tuesday, Xinjiang had reported 64 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 62 were reported in Urumqi, and all the 69 asymptomatic cases in the autonomous region were in the regional capital city.