A staff checks the nucleic acid test kit at the plant of Luoyang Ascend Biotechnology Co., Ltd in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, March 4, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

About 8 million yuan ($1.13 million) in daily medical costs can be saved in Central China's Hubei Province due to a drastic decrease in local nucleic acid testing kit purchase prices, according to media reports. 

Local government departments are likely to purchase nucleic acid testing kits at prices 81 percent lower than the average purchase price in Hubei at the end of March, and the price of antibody test kits will decrease by about 72 percent, according to a report from the Hubei Daily on Sunday.

The nucleic acid test kit price cut alone would lead to a decrease in medical costs of about 8 million yuan each day in Hubei, considering a daily maximum of 89,000 people take the tests in the province, the report said. 

It added that a number of Hubei government departments including the Health Commission and the Healthcare Security Administration of Hubei carried out the centralized purchase on Sunday.

A total of 19 companies participated in the bidding, and six are expected to be chosen as suppliers.

A representative from the Healthcare Security Administration of Hubei said Hubei will take further action to direct the prices of test kits to a "reasonable level," the report noted. 

China is pushing for mass coronavirus testing, with some of the country's e-commerce giants like Alibaba and Pinduoduo opening online platforms for nucleic acid and antibody testing, leading to a hike in demand for test kits.