Bhubaneswar: Even as many countries have completely relaxed Covid restrictions in the hope of returning to normalcy, China is facing its severest domestic Covid-19 outbreaks in two years with a record 1,807 new cases reported on Sunday, the Global Times reported.
The latest spikes in Jilin, Shandong, Guangdong provinces, Shanghai, and Beijing municipalities, which forced several major cities to go into lockdowns, saw a sharp rise in the number of asymptomatic patients.
The daily increase in asymptomatic infections exceeded the daily increase in confirmed cases for six consecutive days from March 7 to 12.
The Omicron variant has replaced Delta to become the dominant strain in the country, the report said.
Amid a fresh wave of Covid cases, a slew of pharmacies across China has begun to stock their shelves with antigen detection kits that provide faster results than nucleic acid testing.
As the country has decided to promote monitoring by using both “antigen screening and nucleic acid diagnosis”, the National Health Commission announced that the general public will be able to use rapid antigen testing.
The National Medical Products Administration on Saturday approved five Covid antigen self-testing products for sale, which will be used as a supplement to the standard nucleic acid testing to help fight the spread of the virus.
As per the drug authority guidelines, the antigen testing products can be used by both people under quarantine as well as those that need to be hospitalised with symptoms such as respiratory tract infections or fevers.
(With inputs from IANS)
