Beijing: More than four million coronavirus test swabs have been taken in a matter of days in Qingdao, the Chinese port city where a minor outbreak elicited a sweeping health response.
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Queues for testing stretched across the eastern city for a another day on Tuesday after authorities detected six virus cases on the weekend and swiftly swung into action to head off a wider outbreak.
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In scenes which contrasted with the fumbled efforts of other nations to establish effective screening regimes, Qingdao health workers in protective gear set up tents to take samples across neighbourhoods.
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Residents said on social media that community representatives informed them of their nearest testing stations, with local districts helping to organise sample collection for mass testing.
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"4.2 million samples have been collected for nucleic acid testing" as of Tuesday afternoon, city authorities said in a press conference reported by state media, adding that 1.9 million results had been obtained.
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Except for the six confirmed cases and six asymptomatic infections earlier announced, no new cases have been found, the report added.
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The city is aiming to test its entire population - around 9.4 million - within five days of the detection of the first cases at a hospital on Sunday.
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China has paraded its rapid testing capacities during previous minor outbreaks and the ruling Communist Party is desperate to show its ability to manage the pandemic to its citizens - as well as to foreign audiences - after it emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year.
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The country has bounced back since the virus emerged late last year and forced widespread lockdowns that hammered the world's second-largest economy. China is also desperate to be the first nation to produce a coronavirus vaccine, with several companies in final-stage trials.
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