Coronavirus: China tests whole city Kashgar in Xinjiang

China has once again announced to test the whole city for coronavirus as Xinjiang Province reported new cases.

According to the international news agency, around 4.7m people in Kashgar are being tested. Around 138 asymptomatic cases have been found so far.

A woman working in a garment factory in Shufu county was the first one to catch coronavirus. She was the first local case detected in mainland China for 10 days and the disease was revealed during ‘routine testing’.

On the other hand, 137 asymptomatic patients were reported on Saturday during the widespread testing.

Asymptomatic cases are not counted in China’s official tally of 85,810 confirmed infections. The country’s death toll stands at 4,634.

City officials said that more than 2.8m tests had been carried out in Kashgar by Sunday after. The rest will be completed in two days.

Kashgar is in China’s western Xinjiang province, home to ethnic Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims. It has closed schools and residents are not allowed to leave the city unless they have a negative test report.

Xinjiang accommodates China’s mostly-Muslim Uighur minority which rights groups say is being persecuted by the government in Beijing.

The covid-19 outbreak was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year. The country has remained successful in bringing down infection rates, but small outbreaks are still being reported.