People walk past the temporarily closed 300-meter SEG Plaza in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province on May 24, 2021. Photo: CFP

Some residential communities in Futian district in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, launched nucleic acid testing for locals on Wednesday evening after the city reported asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 in recent days. 

Local media quoted a staff member in a local residential community in Lianhua street, Futian, that mentioned that medical staff arrived at around 9 pm to take nucleic acid testing for the residents. 

Shenzhen reported two asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, raising the total number of hospitalized asymptomatic patients to 26. 

The B.1.1.7 variant of the virus, first detected in the UK, was identified in some of the cases, the Shenzhen authorities announced on Tuesday. It indicates that they were related to cases imported from abroad and may share the same source or the same chain of transmission, the authorities highlighted.