China to test more than four million people in province

China has launched a new large-scale screening campaign in the northwest of the country, where 137 cases of coronavirus infection have been detected in Kashgar, according to AFP.

The tests, which began on Saturday night, will cover 4.75 million people in and around Kashgar, in Xinjiang province, after a young worker at a textile factory tested positive for covid-19.

China, the country where the coronavirus was first detected in late December 2019, before spreading around the world, has managed to contain the pandemic in its territory with many tests, containment measures and circulation restrictions, but local outbreaks have emerged sporadically.

The new positive cases, all asymptomatic, are linked to a factory in Shufu County, where a young woman and her parents work, the Xinjiang Health Commission said.

So far, more than 2.8 million samples have already been collected in the affected region and the remaining tests are scheduled for the next two days, said the local municipality.

Kashgar – near the border with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – is a city in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang.

Many Uighurs say they are the target of political and religious persecution by Chinese authorities, which Beijing has consistently denied.

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