Photo: Chinanews.com

Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Sunday announced it will test its six million residents to identify patients and silent carriers to curb the spread of the new COVID-19 outbreak after the infection chain has spread to another six cities. 

The city reported 12 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, and Tieling in the province reported one related infection, the Health Commission of Liaoning Province said Sunday. The infection has spread to seven cities in four provinces. 

Ma Xiaowei, Director of National Health Commission, urged the city to achieve full nucleic acid testing for all residents within four days and make full use of medical resources in Dalian and nearby cities. 

After a domestic case was detected on Wednesday, previous testing covered areas where infections concentrated. The comprehensive testing will prioritize residential communities that are densely populated, with all costs covered by the government, according to Dalian Health Commission. 

Liu Xingyu, a resident from Dalian's Ganjingzi district where the latest infection cluster was first detected, told the Global Times on Sunday that community workers started sending group messages and knocking door to door in the morning to inform residents of the tests. 

The 12 new cases are all related to a seafood company in the district, and the Tieling case is a close contact of a Dalian patient. The city has designated one high-risk area and four medium-risk areas.  

Patients related to the chain were also reported in another city in Liaoning and five cities in three other provinces, Northeast China's Jilin and Heilongjiang, and East China's Fujian Province. 

Dalian coronavirus infection

Wang Peiyu, a deputy head of Peking University's School of Public Health, noted that the spread of the virus beyond Dalian is understandable amid population flows after the resumption of most businesses. 

As long as travel history and close contacts can be tracked, people should not be overly worried, Wang said.

Ma noted that the city's epidemic situation, with a lot of uncertainties, is at the early stage of development and at a critical point for the overall prevention and control work.

Dalian has been stepping up preventative and control measures since its fresh outbreak started on Wednesday when a 58-year-old man working at the seafood company tested positive, breaking the city's record of zero COVID-19 cases for 111 days. 

The city entered "wartime mode" on Friday. On Saturday, it announced it would seal off all nursing homes, kindergartens and indoor public places in Dalian.