(Yicai Global) April 13 -- Shanghai has converted the production park of Metersbonwe Fashion & Accessories into a Covid-19 test center to help ramp up the city’s testing capacity.

A medical team from neighboring Zhejiang province is checking nucleic acid tests in the park, which is located in Pudong New Area, Yicai Global learned from Shanghai-based Metersbonwe. The team can test up to 100,000 vials a day.

After receiving notice from the local government, Metersbonwe cleared and cleaned the facility within 24 hours and then helped to turn it into a Covid-19 test center, founder Zhou Chengjian told Yicai Global.

Many businesses in Shanghai have been helping in the battle against the omicron variant of Covid-19 by putting their resources at the city’s disposal. And more than 7,000 medics from Zhejiang are in place to help with testing, according to the province’s health department.

Fire Eye, an automated Covid-19 testing lab designated by BGI Genomics and used in Wuhan in 2020, also has been put into use in the city’s Lingang Special Area. On a recent visit, Yicai Global learned that the mobile lab, built by the industrial park developer Lingang Group, has seven isolation rooms and can test up to 100,000 vials a day, with each vial containing multiple samples.

To contain the spread of Covid-19, Shanghai also has built more than 100 makeshift hospitals to treat patients, including at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, which together have over 160,000 beds available. 

Yicai Global reported yesterday that for the first time during the city’s recent wave of Covid-19 an office block, located alongside the Huangpu river, has been repurposed as an improvised hospital. Bought at auction several days ago for CNY1.4 billion (USD220 million) by real estate firm Pacific Rehouse bought, it can accommodate more than 3,000 people, according to a company official.

Shanghai reported 1,189 new confirmed cases and 25,141 asymptomatic infections yesterday, according to figures released by the local health authority. 

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione