A medical worker guides a resident to do antigen home-testing in Shanghai, east China, April 3, 2022. Shanghai launched citywide antigen testing on Sunday and will conduct nucleic acid testing on Monday amid efforts to contain the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the metropolis, according to local authorities. Photo: Xinhua

Shanghai saw the largest-ever daily increase of positive infections after organizing all its 25 million residents take nucleic acid testing on Monday, bringing the accumulated number of COVID-19 infections to 73,000 since March. 

The number of COVID-19 infections in Shanghai has exceeded 73,000 during the latest flare-up since March and the daily increases remain at a high level, showing an extremely grim situation, Shanghai health authority said on Tuesday. 

The daily increase of local positive infections exceeded 10,000 for the first time on Monday, reaching 13,354 -  268 confirmed cases and 13,086 asymptomatic infections. Fourteen confirmed cases and 12,592 asymptomatic cases were detected among those already in quarantine, the rest were found during the testing of populations at risk. 

Shanghai arranged all its 25.66 million residents to take a nucleic acid testing on Monday, the largest exercise of its kind in China and the world, with the assistance of more than 38,000 health workers from all around the country. As of 8:00 am on Tuesday, 2.42 million tubes of samples have been collected among which 1.92 million were tested. 

As of today, Shanghai's daily maximum capacity of nucleic acid testing has reached 4 million tubes after around 20,000 collecting sites were set up around the city with 50,000 workers on duty, noted Gu Honghui, a deputy secretary general of Shanghai Municipal People's Government, during a press conference on Tuesday.According to Gu, a top task at the moment is to transfer and quarantine positive cases. Once new positive infections are found, they must be transferred immediately, accounted for daily and quarantined as soon as possible. 

Based on China's recently updated treatment playbook for COVID-19, every effort will be made to treat infected people and strengthen classified treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) will be applied in the prevention and treatment of the disease, while novel medicines for COVID-19 will be reserved and used to treat severe cases and lower the death rate, Gu said. 

Besides, the city is actively preparing more beds for treatment and isolation rooms. Designated hospitals have been increased and a batch of makeshift hospitals with a total number of beds of 47,700 have been set up. Another 30,000 beds will be put into use soon. 

In addition, some of the city's hotels, stadiums, exhibition centers and training centers that meet the epidemic prevention requirements will be used as temporary quarantine sites. A total of 62 temporary transfer and isolation sites have been set up to increase transfer and screening efficiency, officials said.

Global Times