China’s Wuhan nearly tests its entire population detecting no new cases

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus outbreak began, has found no new cases of people suffering from COVID-19 after testing almost its entire population, and 300 asymptomatic carriers of the virus, officials said on Tuesday.

Authorities launched the vast testing campaign on May 14, and reached 9.9 million out of 11 million people, after a cluster of new cases raised fears of a second wave of infections.

China does not count people who are infected with the virus but do not show symptoms of the disease as confirmed cases.

Officials told reporters in a briefing that there had been no new confirmed cases, and said the asymptomatic carriers had been found not to be infectious; masks, toothbrushes, phones, door handles and elevator buttons that they touched had no traces of virus.

The central city, capital of Hubei province, was placed under a lockdown on Jan. 23. It was lifted on April 8.

Wuhan was the hardest hit Chinese city and accounts for the majority of the 4,634 deaths and 83,022 infections reported in mainland China.