China sent the army and thousands of workers in Healthcare to Shanghai To help conduct coronavirus tests for all of its 26 million residents, as the number of coronavirus infections continued to rise Monday.
Some residents woke up before dawn for their white-clad health care workers to administer a throat swab for DNA, and many lined up in pajamas two meters apart for social distancing.
A newspaper affiliated with the armed forces said that the Chinese army on Sunday sent more than 2,000 medical personnel from various departments of the army, navy and joint logistic support forces to Shanghai.
So far, 38,000 health care workers from provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and the capital, Beijing, have arrived in Shanghai, according to state media, which showed their arrival by high-speed rail and planes wearing masks and carrying suitcases.
A queue to undergo a corona examination in Shanghai
A queue to undergo a corona examination in Shanghai
A queue to undergo a corona examination in Shanghai
This is The largest public health operation in China Since it dealt with the first outbreak of corona in Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in late 2019, the State Council said the army at that time sent more than 4,000 health workers to Hubei Province, where Wuhan is located.
Shanghai, which began a two-stage lockdown on March 28 and was extended to require all residents to stay at home, recorded 8,581 asymptomatic cases and 425 asymptomatic cases on April 3. It also asked citizens to take self-exams on Sunday.
And this operation came in the most populous city in China on the eve of the first announcement by Shanghai that it It plans to lift restrictions related to the closure.
A senior Chinese health official was reported last month that the country has 12,400 institutions capable of testing up to 900 million people daily.
The city has also converted several hospitals, gymnasiums, apartment buildings and other places into central quarantine sites, including the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center that can accommodate 15,000 patients at full capacity.
A woman undergoes a corona examination in Shanghai
On Monday, some residents said they received their test results on their personal health app just over four hours following getting tested in the morning. But in other parts of the city, some said they had not yet received any notification of when their tests would be.
Shanghai police said on Saturday that individuals who refuse to undergo a corona examination without giving a clear reason will face administrative or criminal punishment.
Healthcare workers under pressure
The pressure on the city’s health care workers and Communist Party members has been great, working around the clock to manage the city’s lockdown and deal with the disappointment of residents.
A worker guards an apartment complex in Shanghai
Pictures and videos circulated on Chinese social media of exhausted healthcare personnel and volunteers sleeping on plastic chairs or on the grass outside apartment complexes, or being reprimanded by residents.
For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the country to curb the outbreak as soon as possible while adhering to the policy of “dynamic disinfection,” as he put it.
On Saturday, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who was sent to Shanghai by the central government, called on the city to “take firm and rapid steps” to curb the pandemic.
