(Yicai Global) May 11 -- China's cabinet has proposed that each resident in large cities should be able to find a Covid-19 testing spot within a 15-minute walk from their houses, prompting a huge surge in testing personnel demand.

China needs at least one million workers to collect nucleic acid tests, brokerage Shanghai Securities wrote in a research report on the same day, May 9, when the State Council suggested that such 15-minute testing circles should be formed in large cities.

The proposal has prompted a wave of vacancies for medical staff on job websites, Yicai Global learned. But not anyone will do. Regional pandemic prevention and control authorities have strict requirements for testing staff.

The law of supply and demand is verified as the high requirements have boosted nurses' remuneration. For example, an HR company in Guangdong province requires its lab worker candidates to have a nurse certificate to be qualified. The applicants should be from 18 to 35 years of age. They should have received three doses of Covid-19 vaccines. The salaries vary from CNY10,000 to CNY15,000 (at least USD1,494) per month.

The pay could even be higher. A medical investment management company offers CNY1,000 (USD149) per day, a year-end bonus, as well as traveling opportunities and stock options.

The big cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Ningbo are gradually building more Covid-19 testing spots, according to the Shanghai Securities report. Zhejiang province's Hangzhou has established 10,000 points for free testing, requiring all residents to get tested every 48 hours.

Hangzhou now has one testing point for about every 1,200 residents according to a calculation based on the city's population, per the brokerage's report. Based on this ratio, the country would need to build at least 750,000 new testing points nationwide and hire more than one million lab workers.

The applicants need to have the right credentials. A health committee in Shanghai's Jinshan district published a lab recruitment post last month, requiring the candidates to have an educational background in medicine, nursing, or testing. Still, they need to be trained and pass exams to land a job, according to the post.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi