China to test entire population of Wuhan for COVID-19 as virus reemerges

Chinese authorities said they will test each of the 11 million residents of the city of Wuhan for COVID-19 after a handful of locally transmitted cases were discovered in the area, BBC News reported on Tuesday. Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected in 2019, reported three locally transmitted infections on Monday, according to the Associated Press.

"To ensure that everyone in the city is safe, city-wide nucleic acid testing will be quickly launched for all people to fully screen out positive results and asymptomatic infections," Wuhan official Li Qiang told a news briefing, according to Reuters. China is experiencing its biggest coronavirus outbreak in months, with 300 cases detected over the last 10 days in at least 15 provinces across the country. Officials attribute the spike to the more contagious Delta variant, as well as to domestic travel.