Virus testing accelerates with inflatable lab

China's largest inflatable laboratory was set up in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, to help the city speed up testing for the coronavirus.

In the laboratory, dubbed the falcon cube, 150,000 test runs per day are performed. To save time, 10 samples at a time are processed, with the result usually coming back negative. But if the result is positive, it means at least one of the 10 samples is positive, in which case the individual samples are retested to yield results for specific people.

With this method, the laboratory can test as many as 1.5 million samples a day. Such labs have proved effective in containing the virus in other cities, including Nanjing, Guangzhou and Shijiazhuang.

Yangzhou reported 25 new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the provincial health commission said on Friday. It has registered 510 locally transmitted cases since July 20, with 27 patients in serious condition being treated and 14 in critical condition.

The city began its seventh round of testing in the downtown area on Thursday, addressing a population of more than 2 million.