What’s new: The city of Kashgar in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has reported 22 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 19 asymptomatic cases after concluding a mass testing program Wednesday on all 4.75 million of its residents, according to local health authorities.
In total 183 people have tested positive for coronavirus infections, including 161 asymptomatic infections, since the latest flare-up emerged in the region last week, the Xinjiang health commission said in a statement.
The new cluster of Covid-19 cases in the remote prefecture of Kashgar has been linked to a garment factory, one of many satellite operations set up in 2018 in Shufu county as part of a poverty alleviation campaign, Caixin reported Tuesday.
The background: The authorities launched the mass testing initiative on Sunday, right after the first batch of 137 new asymptomatic cases were detected in the county, with the aim of completing it by Tuesday. Meantime, all schools have been shut down, although universities, supermarkets and shopping malls have remained open. Four areas in Shufu county have been classified as high-risk, while the rest have been classified as medium risk. Other cities and counties have been classified as low risk, according to Kashgar government.
Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)
