CHINA / SOCIETY
China sends 2,000 military doctors, more medical workers to Shanghai to fight COVID flare-up, test 25 million residents
Published: Apr 04, 2022 09:53 AM
Medical workers wait to board a train to Shanghai at Nanchang Railway Station in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, April 3, 2022. A team of medical workers left Jiangxi Province Sunday for Shanghai to help aid the COVID-19 control efforts there. (Xinhua)

Medical workers wait to board a train to Shanghai at Nanchang Railway Station in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, April 3, 2022. A team of medical workers left Jiangxi Province Sunday for Shanghai to help aid the COVID-19 control efforts there. (Xinhua)


China’s military authorities on Sunday dispatched more than 2,000 medical staff to Shanghai in the fight against the highly contagious Omicron variant, according to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Daily.

The medical staff were drawn from seven medical units affiliated with the army, navy and joint logistics support force. Upon arrival in Shanghai, they quickly carried out medical treatment, nucleic acid testing and other essential tasks, the newspaper said.

A Chinese Air Force heavy transport Y-20 aircraft was parked at an airport in Shanghai early Monday morning, according to a picture circulating on the internet. The Y-20 military aircraft had played an import role in delivering aid to help Wuhan fight the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2000. 

A medical worker conducts antigen testing for an elder resident in Shanghai, east China, April 3, 2022.(Xinhua)

A medical worker conducts antigen testing for an elder resident in Shanghai, east China, April 3, 2022.(Xinhua)


 
Shanghai will conduct city-wide nucleic acid testing on Monday in a move to eliminate all risk points and break the transmission chain, curbing the spread of the flare-up as soon as possible. The city of 25 million vowed to finish the mass testing within 36 hours. The city has conducted a city-wide COVID-19 antigen test on Sunday.  

Medical workers are seen before setting out for Shanghai at Nanchang Railway Station in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, April 3, 2022. A team of medical workers left Jiangxi Province Sunday for Shanghai to help aid the COVID-19 control efforts there. (Xinhua)

Medical workers are seen before setting out for Shanghai at Nanchang Railway Station in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, April 3, 2022. A team of medical workers left Jiangxi Province Sunday for Shanghai to help aid the COVID-19 control efforts there. (Xinhua)

Shanghai on Monday reported 425 confirmed and 8,581 asymptomatic domestically transmitted cases, the highest daily increases since the latest outbreak, bringing the total number of COVID-19 infections in the city to over 60,000.

Regions including East China’s Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangxi provinces, North China’s Tianjin, and Central China’s Hubei province have also sent medical teams to help Shanghai combat the outbreak, with the total number of medical staff from other regions supporting Shanghai reaching about 10,000 as of Sunday.

In addition to the medical team already dispatched to Shanghai, hospitals in Jiangsu on Monday sent an additional 7,500 medical staff to the city to help with the nucleic acid testing work.

Global Times