CHINA URGES BOOST TO COVID-19 TESTING CAPACITY

China’s local governments and medical institutes should ramp up and reserve coronavirus testing capacity in preparation for increased demand amid potential outbreaks, national health authorities said on Thursday.

Local authorities should have emergency response plans to be able to swiftly expand nucleic test capacity, the National Health Commission said in a guideline on its website, Roxanne Liu, Judy Hua and Ryan Woo wrote for Reuters late on July 2, 2020.

Nucleic acid test results should be delivered within six hours for patients at fever clinics and within a day for those who volunteer to be tested, according to the guideline.

COVID-19 cases have risen in Beijing and other places in China after the government eased pandemic restrictions in highly-populated cities.