People register for COVID-19 test at a testing site in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, July 21, 2021. Nanjing, which has a population of more than 9.3 million, carried out citywide nucleic acid testing starting on Wednesday.(Photo: Xinhua)

Nanjing has found 13 confirmed cases in the whole city, among which seven were light cases and six were ordinary cases. Other nine asymptomatic cases were detected, as of 1 pm on Thursday.

Jiangning district, where the airport is located, has finished nucleic acid testing for about 2.046 million people with the efforts of about 2,000 medical staff in the district and nearly 3,930 medical staff from other districts.

29 communities and about 30,000 residents in Jiangning district have been put under enclosed management since Tuesday. There are enough living materials in the sealed area and social order is well maintained, said Fu Jinjin, the deputy director of Jiangning district during the press conference.

Ten communities in Nanjing are now listed as medium-risk, nine in Jiangning district and one in Sushui district.

Nanjing announced the launch of a citywide nucleic acid test for its residents and people who come to the city, after 17 airport staff members tested positive, media reported on Wednesday.

A local resident in Jiangning district near the enclosed management area told the Global Times that she waited for five hours to get tested on Wednesday evening, from 8 pm to nearly 1 am on Thursday.

Xu Minsheng, the second-level inspector of Nanjing Health Commission, apologized during a press conference on Thursday to Nanjing residents for the long queues and lack of enough medical staff.

"We have dispatched over 4,500 medical staff to the test sites from the Jiangsu Province and other districts in Nanjing," Xu said.

There are 1,452 nucleic testing sites in the city, and all will have enough supply of sampling tubes, he added.

As of 12 am on Thursday, over 500 million nucleic acid test samples have been collected.

The latest surge in Nanjing began on Tuesday night when nine staff members at Nanjing Lukou International Airport tested positive for COVID-19. The number of positive cases was later updated to 17, including nine confirmed cases and eight asymptomatic patients. 

Jiangning district launched mass testing at 9 am Wednesday. The district, with more than 1.9 million permanent residents, was expected to finish sample collection on Wednesday, said officials.

Nanjing government said on Wednesday afternoon that nobody should leave Nanjing unless necessary. For people who need to leave the city through railway stations, airports and coach stations, they should take with them a negative nucleic acid test report issued within 48 hours.