Medical workers from Shandong province take part in a departure ceremony before leaving for Shanghai, in Jinan, East China's Shandong province, April 3, 2022. A team of some 1,100 medical workers left Jinan on Sunday for Shanghai to help fight COVID-19 on the front lines. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan urged resolute and swift action to control the COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai in the shortest time possible, during an inspection visit to the city on Saturday.
Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, underlined that Shanghai must implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, on pandemic prevention and control.
The number of makeshift hospitals and designated hospitals for COVID-19 treatment should be expanded, Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan said, adding that preparation of sufficient quarantine venues and swift transfer and treatment of patients is also needed
Shanghai must adhere to the dynamic zero-COVID approach, and mobilize all of its testing capacity, medical personnel and COVID-19 prevention supplies to support the fight against the epidemic, she said.
Sun said that each of Shanghai's 25 million residents must undergo nucleic acid tests during citywide mass testing. All infected people who are not in a serious condition can go to a fangcang, or makeshift, hospital for treatment.
The number of makeshift hospitals and designated hospitals for COVID-19 treatment should be expanded, she said, adding that preparation of sufficient quarantine venues and swift transfer and treatment of patients is also needed.
Epidemic control measures in communities must be further strengthened, while people's basic living and medical needs should be ensured, Sun said.
A medical team arrives at Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai on April 3 to support epidemic containment there. The team consists of 1,500 medical workers from 35 medical bodies, including Tianjin Medical University General Hospital and Tianjin First Central Hospital. (CAO LEI / CHINA DAILY)
The Shanghai government announced that all residents will undergo antigen tests on Sunday and citywide mass nucleic acid testing will begin on Monday.
Shanghai recorded 8,226 new locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, including 438 confirmed cases, on Saturday.
Wu Qianyu, a Shanghai Health Commission official, said the city had more than 10 hospitals, including the makeshift ones, to receive and treat COVID-19 patients.
"In the meantime, multiple large public facilities have been constructed so that all infected people receive treatment at designated medical venues," she said, adding that at least 15 hospitals have sent medical staff to help with treatment at the sites.
The Shanghai Guanghua Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine was asked to take responsibility for the treatment of patients at a fangcang. The makeshift facility in Changning district was converted from a music hall. Shanghai Guanghua Hospital organized 76 medical workers and the makeshift hospital started receiving patients on Saturday.
Groups of medical workers have also been dispatched from at least nine provincial-level regions to Shanghai to assist with epidemic control work.
READ MORE: Shanghai screens 14m people for virus in 2nd phase of lockdown
Staff members work at a vegetable warehouse in Songjiang district of Shanghai, April 1, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Separately, Northeast China's Jilin province reported 956 confirmed cases and 3,499 asymptomatic carriers on Saturday, the provincial health commission said. The province has reported more than 50,000 infections since March.
The commission said the situation in Changchun, the provincial capital, was still developing, while the situation in Jilin city was improving as infections in the past week dropped by 44 percent compared to a week before.
On Saturday, Suzhou, Jiangsu province, reported a new Omicron subvariant BA.1.1. The city's center for disease control and prevention said that no highly homologous sequence of the novel coronavirus genome was found in multiple databases.
The center said that it will take more time to analyze and compare the subvariant.
Photo taken on April 1, 2022 shows the quarantine zone at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in Shanghai. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
It is important to collect samples from current COVID-19 infections, conduct genome sequencing and closely monitor the mutation situation. It is also necessary to detect mainstream virus strains in a timely manner, and develop effective vaccines, antiviral drugs and detection reagents.
Experts said a new subvariant does not always mean a more contagious strain, and only the most adaptable ones survive. However, some subvariants can become the main strain of a virus.
Medical workers prepare for their departure at Tianjin West Railway Station on Sunday before leaving to do COVID-19 control work in Shanghai. About 1,500 members from 35 medical institutions in Tianjin have been dispatched to help. (PHOTO / XINHUA)