[특파원 다이어리] China fears reproliferation, Wang Jing 300,000 nucleic acid tests

Saliva sample PCR test and pooling test after smartphone QR code registration
Wangjing Koreantown was cut off… Spreading anxiety in Korean society

[아시아경제 베이징=조영신 특파원] Around 8 am on the 26th (local time). A tent was installed at a children’s playground in an apartment in Wangjing, Chaoyang District, Beijing. The previous evening, I knew it intuitively because I saw the notice that the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) was a complete test. It’s a temporary inspection station.

When the movement of the confirmed people was confirmed in Wangjing, an area where Koreans were concentrated, Beijing City authorities notified each apartment residence committee to undergo nucleic acid testing from the 26th to the 27th. Whether it only applies to Chinese, or whether it is testing for foreigners, including Koreans, I was nervous late at night.

Wangjing’s population is 300,000. Of these, it is estimated that there are around 40,000 Koreans. I looked around the temporary inspection station installed in the apartment complex with doubts,’Would it be possible to perform a full inspection in just two days?’ Only 100 residents of the apartment already lined up. The test speed was faster than I thought.

The test method is a saliva sample PCR test and a collection (pooling) test. Specimens taken from the necks of five people were mixed and examined simultaneously. When a positive group is found, a second individual test is conducted.

The inspection registration method is a smartphone QR code. When you re-enter your address in the health kit in Zfubao (Alipay), an individual QR code is given. You don’t even need an ID card, such as a passport. Children under the age of 6 are exempt from testing.

The test began with two confirmed patients in Shunyi-gu, about 20 km away from Wangjing. One of them is reportedly a Chinese woman working for a company in Wangjing. The building where the woman’s workplace is located (commercial district) was closed on the 25th. This building is located close to the apartment complexes where Korean Americans live, and there is inevitably great anxiety in the Korean community.

Since there has not been a confirmed case of Corona 19 in Wangjing so far, the Chinese are also anxious.

One source Wang Jing said, “In Korean restaurants as well as in Chinese restaurants, people stopped going all night,” he said. “For the time being, there is no special method other than taking care of each person.”

It was on the 14th that a confirmed person came out in Beijing. A 27-year-old man who entered Beijing by air from Hong Kong was confirmed after two weeks of quarantine. A confirmed case came out in Beijing six months after the Sinpadhi market crisis in June. On the 23rd, a confirmed patient came out at a housing complex in Suni-gu, and it is known that the number of confirmed patients has increased to five.

Beijing has been considered a safety zone for Corona 19. The Chinese government ordered all flights to Beijing to detour to cities near Beijing, and allowed entry to Beijing only after two weeks of quarantine in the neighboring cities.

At 10 o’clock on the evening of the 26th, a post about 1,000 people left in the apartment residents’ common Weixin (WeChat) room was posted. 1600 households live in this apartment. It means that 4,000 to 5,000 people were tested in one day.

The interpretation of whether the Chinese should follow the authorities’ instructions smoothly or that China’s Corona 19 test method is ahead of them is divided, but what is clear is that the’Wuhan’ trauma is deeply embedded in the minds of the Chinese.

Meanwhile, Chaoyang District in Beijing said on the 26th that all 23,4413 people had been tested for Corona 19, and that all were negative as of 8 am on the 27th.

Beijing = Correspondent Cho Young-shin [email protected]