China sends military, doctors to test Shanghai residents for COVID-19

China has sent the military and thousands of healthcare workers into Shanghai to help carry out COVID-19 tests for all of its 26 million residents, in one of the country’s biggest-ever public health responses.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), dispatched more than 2,000 medical personnel from across the army, navy and joint logistics support forces to Shanghai.

“More than 10,000 health care workers from around the country have arrived in Shanghai, which showed them arriving, suitcase-laden and masked up, by high-speed rail and aircraft.”

It is China’s largest public health response since it tackled the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus was first discovered in late 2019.

The State Council said, the PLA dispatched more than 4,000 medical personnel to the province of Hubei, where Wuhan is, at that time.

Shanghai, which began a two-stage lockdown on March 28 that has been expanded to confine practically all residents to their homes, reported 8,581 asymptomatic Covid-19 cases and 425 symptomatic cases for April 3. It also asked residents to self-test on Sunday.

READ ALSO: Shanghai tightens Covid lockdown on second day.

Reuters