Virus testing begins in partially locked down Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia

Northern China's port city of Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia, announced that it will begin a third round of nucleic acid coronavirus testing for all its 30,000 residents on Thursday, after the city had suffered from local coronavirus infections since late November.
Manzhouli is the mainland's largest land port bordering Russia, the Communist Party media Global Times, reports.
The previous two rounds of virus testing was on November 22 and November 27.

A total of 12 people — 11 confirmed patients and one asymptomatic carrier — tested positive in the first round. The second round found seven confirmed patients and one asymptomatic patient.
A Manzhouli resident surnamed Li, who had been tested in the previous two rounds, said on Wednesday that the nucleic acid tests were free and only required three minutes each time.
The Manzhouli authorities said on November 26 that the new coronavirus was thought to have spread among local families, communities and a local school. It had suspended all gatherings across the city, and put six communities with confirmed patients under 24-hour closed-loop management.
Before Manzhouli, Urumqi and some areas in Kashi prefecture in Xinjiang had undergone testing.
Manzhouli entered "quasi-lockdown" mode after two local infections were reported on Saturday, involving a 55-year-old sanitation worker and his domestic helper wife. The genetic sequencing of the two patients belongs to the L genotype of the European branch and shares a high similarity with the strain found in Russia, said local authorities.