China's Wuhan city tests 11.23 million amid coronavirus resurgence
Beijing, Aug 7: China's Wuhan city, where the coronavirus first emerged in 2019 and which is currently experiencing a resurgence of infections, has tested 11.23 million of its over 12 million people, local authorities said on Saturday.
Wuhan reported six new locally-transmitted confirmed cases and 15 asymptomatic cases. By the end of Friday, Hubei province, Wuhan's capital, reported 47 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 31 locally-transmitted cases.
Wuhan has collected over 11.23 million samples for nucleic acid testing, local authorities said.
There were also 64 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The city launched a new, all-inclusive testing drive on August 4. The results from 10.8 million of the samples are available. The health staffers are still checking and confirming, Li Yang, the deputy director of the Hubei provincial centre for disease control and prevention, told the media on Saturday.
By Friday, the city had put 157 residential communities under closed-loop management, the Xinhua report said.
COVID-19 resurfaced in the city after the city dealt with the first surge of coronavirus cases in December, 2019.
China's National Health Commission said on Saturday 139 new cases COVID-19 were reported on Friday.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the mainland reached 93,605 by Friday, including 1,444 patients still receiving treatment, 39 of whom were in severe conditions and 4,636 had died as a result of the virus, the commission said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
