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China-Wuhan to test whole city of 11 million after new cases of COVID-19 emerge

Staff members line up at attention as they prepare to spray disinfectant at Wuhan Railway Station in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on March 24, 2020. - China announced on March 24 that a lockdown would be lifted on more than 50 million people in central Hubei province where the COVID-19 coronavirus first emerged late last year. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Wuhan, where the global COVID-19 pandemic first originated, has commanded officials to arrange to test its entire 11 million population after it announced new infections for the first time since its lockdown was lifted, according to state media reports.

All districts in the city have been ordered to submit a plan which should lay out how they will plan within ten days to conduct testing of everyone under their purview, told a document cited by local media reports as being released by Wuhan’s anti-virus department. The plan should prioritize the testing of vulnerable groups and areas like residential compounds, the document said.

Six locally transmitted cases, reported on May 10 and 11, were found in people already under quarantine who were asymptomatic before testing positive, according to the local government. All six cases emerged from a single residential compound and were the first new infections found in Wuhan since its lockdown was lifted on April 8