China, June 2

Health authorities in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province reported zero new cases of COVID-19 silent carriers on Monday for the first time since the city started publishing asymptomatic cases.

According to a notice from the Wuhan Health Commission, the city tested more than 60,000 residents on Sunday for asymptomatic infection, and all tested negative.

The result shows that the concentrated nucleic acid testing and screening work in the city has made significant progress, said the notice.

According to the Wuhan Health Commission, more than 9 million residents have been tested as of May 24 since the launch of centralized nucleic acid testing in Wuhan on May 15, completing more than 90 percent of the whole city’s sampling work.

As of Monday, more than 300 silent carriers are currently under medical observation at local hospitals.

The city announced on May 25 it would test residents who were missed in the citywide testing for COVID-19 rolled out in mid-May.

People who were missed out in the citywide testing are mainly the elderly, disabled, people who have been out of the city and other people with special circumstances, noted Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University.

They were required to register with their communities and the local government would arrange for them to be tested on a designated date, according to local authorities.

Lu Yuechen, a Beijing-based software engineer who went to Wuhan on May 13 for a business trip, told the Global Times on Monday that he was required to take the nucleic acid test by his residential community on Friday because he missed the previous citywide test.

“I was not very serious about the citywide test and thought I could skip it as I was just on a business trip. But later I was told that I was also counted into the missed group and was required to go and take the test even though I just stayed in the city for a short time,” Liu said.

He said there were around 200 people who took the test with him at a designated test center in Hongshan district on Friday afternoon.

A Wuhan resident, surnamed Jin, who lives in Hanyang district told the Global Times that her residential community has been posting announcements on WeChat recently to urge those who have not yet taken the test to get registered.

“The goal is to get tested and to screen out all silent carriers. I can see how determined the city is in this citywide testing campaign and I really appreciate that,” she said.

As the city’s screening scope for the testing further expands, many people whose registered permanent residence is in Wuhan but who currently live in other cities also noted that they have received calls from their home community to check if they have taken the tests.