China has dispatched a mobile P3 virus lab to help ramp up the coronavirus mass-testing in Beijing after a fresh COVID-19 outbreak ravaged the capital city.
The country’s health authority sent the remote laboratory, along with a team of 14 medical workers, to a virus-hit district in Beijing this morning, state media reported.
The mobile testing unit could collect testing samples from 1,000 residents a day. The government sent three of those container labs to Wuhan in February at the height of the city’s COVID-19 outbreak.
Beijing citizens who came into contact with the Xinfadi Wholesale Market, either directly or indirectly, are pictured being taken swabs samples in the Chinese capital on Tuesday
China has dispatched a mobile P3 virus lab to help ramp up the coronavirus testing in Beijing after a fresh COVID-19 outbreak erupted the capital city. The file picture taken on April 22 shows the mobile lab arriving at a hospital in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang province in China
The Chinese capital reported 137 domestic infections in the past six days, with the brunt of the cases linked to Xinfadi, a massive wholesale market in the city. Pictured: Medical staff in full protective gear carry signs to assist people to conduct coronavirus testing on Wednesday
It comes after the Chinese capital reported 137 domestic infections in the past six days, with the brunt of the cases linked to Xinfadi, a massive wholesale market in the city.
The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention today sent the mobile P3 lab to Beijing’s south-western district Fengtai, where the food trading hub is located.
P3 labs have the second-highest biological safety standards and are designed to study pathogens that may cause severe or potentially lethal airborne diseases.
The remote testing unit could help screen up to 1,000 people for the coronavirus a day, according to Xinhua.
Over 350,000 residents have received nucleic acid testing since Saturday, a city official said today.
P3 labs have the second-highest biological safety standards and are designed to study pathogens that may cause severe or potentially lethal airborne diseases. The picture shows medical workers working inside a mobile P3 lab in Wuhan at the height of its outbreak
The government sent three of those container labs to Wuhan in February at the height of the city’s COVID-19 outbreak. The picture shows a researcher working inside the lab in Wuhan
The mobile P3 lab has been previously adopted in several coronavirus-hit regions across the country, including Wuhan of Hubei province, to help speed up the local anti-virus efforts. The picture shows a medical worker examining coronavirus testing samples in Wuhan’s mobile lab
The mobile P3 lab has been previously adopted in several coronavirus-hit regions across the country, including Wuhan of Hubei province, Mudanjiang of Heilongjiang Province and Jilin in Northeast China’s Jilin Province, to help speed up the local anti-virus efforts.
Pictures released by the health authority show a large lorry containing the remote testing unit being dispatched to the former coronavirus epicentre, Wuhan, in February.
Hazmat-clad researchers are seen in footage released by CCTV working on coronavirus testing samples in the mobile P3 lab used in Wuhan.
The news comes as Beijing has today reported 31 new native COVID-19 infections and cases have spiked in recent days after mass testing and draconian lockdowns appeared to have brought China’s outbreak to a virtual standstill.
Today’s new cases took the number of confirmed infections in Beijing over the past six days to 137. Hospital workers are pictured at a public testing centre as the Chinese capital city tries to establish how many people have been infected from a recent coronavirus infection cluster
The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention today sent the mobile P3 lab to Beijing’s south-western district Fengtai, where the food trading hub is located. A police car is pictured being parked outside the entrances to the now-closed Xinfadi wholesale market
Today’s new cases took the number of confirmed infections in Beijing over the past six days to 137, as authorities locked down almost 30 communities in the city and tested tens of thousands of people.
Beijing has ordered all primary and secondary schools to shut their campuses and start teaching online from today.
The city yesterday raised the emergency response alert to ‘level two’, meaning a ‘severe’ public health event.
Those at most risks of having come in contact with the virus were also banned from leaving the city, in measures echoing the drastic lockdown in Wuhan where the disease was first detected late last year.
All markets, restaurants, canteens and offices have been instructed to carry out deep clean and disinfection. Other public facilities, such as museums, galleries and parks, can only run at 30 per cent of its maximum capacity.
The country’s Vice Premier Sun Chunlan urged the city’s officials to impose ‘the strictest’ virus control measures to contain the spread of the virus, which has been linked to a massive food wholesale market called Xinfadi.
The World Health Organization had already expressed concern about the cluster, pointing to Beijing’s size and connectivity.
As of Wednesday, China has reported a total of 84,865 confirmed COVID-19 infections, of which 294 are active. The death toll remains at 4,634.
Today’s new cases took the number of confirmed infections in Beijing over the past six days to 137, as authorities locked down almost 30 communities in the city and tested tens of thousands of people. Residents are seen shopping in a supermarket in Beijing on Monday
Pictured: A Chinese epidemic control worker wears a protective suit and mask as he directs people at a site where authorities were performing nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 on citizens who have had contact with the the Xinfadi Wholesale Market, June 15, 2020 in Beijing, China