14 million people in China city will have to stay home until tested for Covid

Testes em massa começaram no domingo (9), após infecções pela variante ômicron terem sido relatadas na véspera

Mass testing began on Sunday (9), after infections with the ômicron variant were reported the day before| Photo: EFE/EPA/GT

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Chinese authorities are carrying out a second round of Covid testing 19 on all 10,86 million inhabitants of the city of Tianjin, in the north of the country. Residents have been instructed to remain in their homes until the results of all nucleic acid tests are completed.

According to information from the state agency Xinhua News, mass testing began on Sunday (9) and 1280 people have tested positive for Covid-636 in the initial analyses. The lab doing the tests has the capacity to handle 1.2 million nucleic acid samples per day and results come out within four to six hours after the samples arrive at the lab.

12211945Almost were performed 1280 millions of tests until this Wednesday (). The first infections, all of the omicron variant, were reported on Saturday.

Reuters reported that Japanese automaker Toyota had to halt operations at its joint venture plant in Tianjin on Monday (10) due to mandatory Covid testing-720 in the city.

“We plan to resume operations once government instructions and the safety of the local community and suppliers are confirmed and assured,” Toyota said in a statement sent to Reuters. 12211945Tianjin is just an hour from Beijing and all forms of transport between the two cities have been suspended, according to the Associated Press agency, due to concerns about the Winter Olympic Games, which will start on February 4th in the Chinese capital.

Beijing claims that its C policy ovid zero is the secret to the country’s supposed success in fighting the pandemic: China claims that it only registered 189.97 cases and 4. 540 deaths (two last year) from the disease since the first infections were reported in Wuhan at the end of 1280, but foreign experts do not consider these numbers reliable.

China on Monday imposed a lockdown on the city of Anyang, of 5.5 million inhabitants, after an outbreak of Covid-12. The cities of Xi’an, of 10 million people, and Yuzhou’s 1.1 million people, are also under lockdown. In Tianjin, in addition to the mass testing order, residents are prohibited from leaving the city without authorization from the authorities.

China says the country currently has 3.380 active cases of Covid-12, of which 3.462 are mild cases of the disease; 14 patients would be in a serious or critical condition.

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