BEIJING, Jun 25 (APP):The Beijing Health Commission said on Thursday that 13 new COVID-19 cases, all locally transmitted, were recorded on Wednesday, raising the total infections related to a local market cluster to 269 since June 11, when the first case was detected.
Those 13 cases were reported in two districts in Beijing: nine in Fengtai and four in Daxing. There were no reports of suspected cases or asymptomatic cases in the Chinese capital during the period, it added.
One case was registered in neighbouring Hebei province. The infected person in Hebei has had close contact with a patient related to Beijing’s Xinfadi market cluster, according to local health authorities.
Meanwhile, according to the municipal authorities, three officials have been punished over dereliction of duty during the containment of COVID-19 in the capital city.
Jia Qi, deputy director of the market supervision administration in Beijing’s Fengtai District, was removed from the intra-Party post and received administrative dismissal, the city’s discipline inspection and supervision authority said in a statement.
Cao Cong, deputy director of the health committee in the Fengtai District, and Yang Jijun, deputy head of Huaxiang Township in the Fengtai District, were given serious intra-Party warnings as well as administrative demotions.
Guo Yanhong, an official in the National Health Commission’s medical administration and supervision department said that more than 90 million nucleic acid tests for novel coronavirus have been conducted across China, with testing capacity for the deadly virus increasing significantly.
Multiple measures have been taken nationwide to boost the capacity to prevent and control COVID-19, including building testing labs and training testing workers, and the efforts have paid off, he added.
From June 15 to noon on Wednesday alone, the NHC and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention had provided online training on nucleic acid testing for the virus to 360,000 people across the country, said He Qinghua, an official in the NHC’s disease control and prevention division.
The number of certified medical institutions providing nucleic acid testing for the coronavirus in China has increased from 2,081 in early March to 4,804, a rise of 131 percent, Guo said. The number of testing technicians has risen to 28,500, more than double the number in early March, Guo said.
These institutions, including hospitals and clinics, can now process 3.8 million samples daily, three times as many as in early March, she said. Expanded testing, which is necessary for early isolation and treatment of COVID-19 patients, has been seen as a key reason for the containment of the epidemic in China.
A guideline released by the NHC in early June required local authorities to increase testing capacity for the virus so that anyone who wanted a nucleic acid test could have one.
“Nucleic acid testing is a most scientific means of determining coronavirus infection,” said the NHC’s He. “Expanding testing contributes to precise epidemic control and prevention and the proper movement of people, as well as promoting the thorough recovery of society and the economy.”
Li Jinming, a researcher at the National Center for Clinical Laboratories, said testing for the virus can help early detection, reporting, isolation and treatment of COVID-19 patients, and massive testing aimed at key groups has played an important role in epidemic control in Beijing following the recent cluster of infections in the city.
After the infections were discovered, Beijing authorities provided tests to more than 2.3 million city residents, Zhang Hua, deputy director of the Beijing Health Commission, said.