The Chinese government on Wednesday announced that more than 90 million coronavirus tests have been conducted across the country since the beginning of the pandemic.
“As of June 22, the accumulative number of nucleic acid tests conducted by medical and health institutions nationwide reached 90.41 million,” said Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission, reports CNN.
People are often required to be tested multiple times if they are suspected cases, recovered patients, or overseas returnees -- along with their close contacts.
Guo said China had increased its testing capacity by expanding the number of testing institutions from 2,081 in early March to 4,804 now. He added that the number of nucleic acid testing technicians also increased from 13,900 to 28,500.
“National health and medical institutions have increased their testing capability, from 1.26 million a day in early March, to the current level of processing 3.78 million tests per day,” said Guo.
China has launched several aggressive testing campaigns in cities across the country in a bid to combat the spread of the virus. In Wuhan, the original epicenter, more than 9.8 million people were tested for the virus in a 20-day period in May as the city worked to contain a fresh outbreak.
China has reported 84,653 confirmed coronavirus cases, including at least 4,640 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.