China's Jilin hands out COVID-19 antigen test kits

CHANGCHUN, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The northeastern Chinese cities of Changchun and Jilin, hardest hit by the fresh outbreak of COVID-19, have distributed millions of COVID-19 self-test antigen kits to citizens, including students, to accelerate massive epidemiological screening.

Starting from 4 a.m. Wednesday, Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province, has given out more than 3.34 million self-test kits to part of its urban districts and Yushu City under its administration.

As of Wednesday, Jilin City had sent part of its test kits to key groups, including students in local primary schools, middle and high schools, colleges, and employees at major enterprises.

More than 270,000 doses usable for three days in the test kits have been handed out to the city's higher learning institutions to meet the daily testing need of their teaching staff and students.

The provincial health authorities also reminded its residents that anyone who tested positive using the self-test kits should report to one's community, village, or the local disease prevention and control center at once.

Positive test results presented by the kits cannot be the single diagnostic basis for confirmed COVID-19 infection. Further nucleic acid testing will be done before a final diagnosis. Citizens who tested positive using the self-test kits should stay put and isolate themselves from their families. They should wait for medical professionals to collect their samples, said local authorities.

Jilin province reported 742 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 415 local asymptomatic carriers Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, the construction of eight makeshift hospitals, with 11,488 beds, had been completed, and two temporary quarantine facilities, which boast 662 isolation rooms, had been established in the northeastern province.