(Yicai Global) April 26 -- Shanghai’s capacity to test for Covid-19 has reached 5.8 million tubes a day, up from 1.02 million last month, according to local authorities. The locked-down city is also expanding the number of nucleic acid testing stations to meet demand.

Some 1.1 million of the daily total are tested by medical workers from other provinces and cities who are in Shanghai to help out, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization told Yicai Global.

One makeshift lab at the Caolu Sports Center in Pudong district had tested 5.2 million tubes as of April 24, according to Pei Xu, the facility’s head. It can process up to 200,000 tubes daily, meaning it can test 2 million people in any given day based on 10:1 pooled testing, he told Yicai Global.

With a team of 217, mostly medics from outside of Shanghai, the lab is working in a so-called closed-loop system, Pei added. That is a practice in which a work bubble is created where staff work, eat, and sleep isolated from others to prevent Covid-19 spreading.

The demand for nucleic acid testing will continue to increase as Shanghai gradually gets back to work. To that end, the city is expanding the number of testing stations.

It will set up fixed and mobile testing stations in residential compounds, transport hubs, offices, schools, supermarkets, shopping malls, and construction sites to make sure people can get to a test center within 15 minutes, per a local government plan.

The fixed stations will be mainly public hospitals and community healthcare centers, while the mobile stations will consist of makeshift facilities built by specialized medical institutions and vehicles.

Shanghai reported 1,661 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 15,319 asymptomatic infections yesterday, down 13 percent from the previous day and the biggest drop during this wave, the city’s health authority said today.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Peter Thomas