Qingdao relaxes routine mass testing

Local authorities in Qingdao, Shandong province issued a notice that the city's male residents are required to be tested for COVID-19 on Tuesdays and female residents on Fridays.

The notice loosens the city's routine testing from once in four days to once in seven days, in line with the current pandemic situation and expert opinion.

"Families and workplaces are currently two units of focus in the city's anti-epidemic efforts," the leading committee for COVID-19 control and prevention and economic growth said in a statement released on Sunday.

The new regulation aims to discover risks in time and save costs, an effort to improve testing sensibility and efficiency, the authorities said.

Currently, many cities across the country have canceled routine nucleic acid tests, and Qingdao insists on once-a-week testing for residents.

The authorities explained that Qingdao is an important port and tourism city along the country's coast, with large flows of goods and people.

"The city is at risk for imported cases and new domestic outbreaks," they said, adding that the new regulation is not rigid and it will be executed according to different situations.