Cities in Jilin roll out rapid testing for COVID-19

Cities in Jilin province have launched COVID-19 rapid antigen testing among residents in key areas and members of institutions involved in epidemic prevention and control, officials said on Wednesday.

"It is easy for people to use the test kits at home and it takes only 15 to 20 minutes to get the results," Sun Bingxin, an official with the Changchun center for disease control and prevention, told a news conference on Wednesday. "The test will serve as a supplementary diagnostic tool to regular nucleic acid testing."

The city government in Changchun, Jilin's provincial capital, began sending out the first batch of 3.34 million test kits to local districts and universities on Wednesday morning.

Wang Yishu, a 21-year-old student at Northeast Normal University, finished self-testing in her dormitory soon after receiving the kit at around 8 am.

"It is very easy to operate after watching the instructional video," she said. "It takes just a few minutes to get the result and can reduce the risks of the virus spreading when people line up for nucleic acid testing.

"We then send the results to our teacher via WeChat, which can also help reduce the workload of medical workers in uploading data. All the used kits are collected by special staff members to avoid cross infection."

In the city of Jilin, 270,400 test kits, enough for three days of use by all the university teachers and students in the city, have been distributed, according to Fan Xuebin, deputy director of the city's center for disease control and prevention.

The province reported 1,456 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 397 asymptomatic carriers on Tuesday, the provincial health commission said on Wednesday.

"The province is continuing to coordinate all medical resources and spare no effort to carry out medical treatment for infected patients," Zhang Li, deputy director of the Jilin Provincial Health Commission, told a news conference on Wednesday. "So far, 23 designated hospitals and eight makeshift hospitals have been prepared across the province."

A makeshift hospital at the Changchun International Exhibition Center received its first batch of patients on Tuesday evening.

Work to transform the center into a makeshift hospital started on March 10. It now has 1,500 beds available in an area of 21,300 square meters.

"Data shows that more than 95 percent of the infected cases in hospital are asymptomatic carriers and patients with mild symptoms," said Gao Peng, chief physician at the Second Hospital of Jilin University's respiratory and critical care medicine department.

"According to the latest version of the Coronavirus Infection Diagnosis and Treatment Scheme issued by the National Health Commission on Tuesday, confirmed cases in severe conditions will be sent to designated hospitals, while cases with mild symptoms and asymptomatic carriers will be sent to makeshift hospitals.

"Close contacts shall be sent to centralized quarantine sites and sub-close contacts shall be put under quarantine at home."

Beijing reported eight new confirmed cases and one asymptomatic carrier in the 24 hours to 4 pm on Wednesday, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference.

An infection cluster at a school in Beijing's Dongcheng district has seen 15 people－seven students and eight parents－become infected with the novel coronavirus, Pang said.

Gene sequencing indicates they were infected with a version of the Omicron variant highly similar to one seen overseas in January.

In neighboring Langfang, Hebei province, 257 infections－32 confirmed cases and 225 asymptomatic carriers－were detected on Tuesday, the Langfang city government said on Wednesday.

Du Juan contributed to this story.