China coronavirus: Kashgar authorities claims to test 4.5 million residents in two days after outbreak

After a small COVID-19 outbreak in western China, there has been an astonishing response from the city of 4.5 million people.

Chinese authorities say they have tested the entire population of an autonomous city in the country’s far west after an outbreak of cases over the weekend.

Within two days of a single asymptomatic case of coronavirus being detected, authorities in the city of Kashgar in the Xinjiang region of China claim they’ve tested almost every one of city’s almost 4.5 million residents.

Schools have been closed in the area and residents have been forbidden from leaving unless they present a negative test report, according to the BBC.

Authorities claim after conducting the extensive testing, 164 cases of COVID-19 were detected.

“Kashgar has conducted over 4.47 million COVID-19 tests since October 24, among which 164 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were reported,” the Chinese Embassy in the US tweeted on Tuesday.

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Authorities claim after conducting 4.47 million tests, just 164 cases were detected. Picture: Chinese Embassy in the US

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The outbreak was detected after a 17-year-old girl was found to be positive. She’d been asymptomatic and her testing was routine. Her parents had worked in a factory, according to comments made by the Xinjiang Health Commission.

The outbreak was traced back to workers from a garment factory in the area’s Shufu County, according to another report from Beijing News. It’s not clear how the virus spread to the factory workers.

The government in China has implemented mass testing of its large cities following previous outbreaks.

In June, 2.95 million people were tested in Beijing over 10 days after an outbreak at a wholesale food centre.

And in October, more than nine million people were tested in Qingdao over five days after another outbreak. The government claimed after this extensive effort, they found zero cases.

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A compound in Yangisar, south of Kashgar. The Xinjiang region is populated by the Muslim Uighur minority, many who are in detention camps. Picture: Greg Baker/AFP

The Xinjiang region is predominantly populated with Muslim Uighur, an ethnic minority in China.

According to Amnesty International up to one million Uighur people are being housed in internment camps in the Xinjiang area.

A number of textile factories in China were under US sanctions earlier this year after reports Uighur people were being forced to work in the factories, and being threatened with detention.

Following the coronavirus outbreak, there was concern about the virus spreading through these camps.

An outbreak in the camps has not been acknowledged by the Chinese government.