Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region identified 26 new asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 between 4 p.m. Sunday and 4 p.m. Monday, a local health official said at a press conference on Monday.

 

All the new cases were reported in Shufu County, south Xinjiang's Kashgar Prefecture.

 

Until 4 p.m. Monday, Shufu had completed taking samples from 245,200 people for nucleic acid testing, and except for five mixed samples to be re-examined, all tested negative, Wang Xijiang, deputy director of Kashgar's disease control and prevention center, told the press briefing.

 

Kashgar has started free nucleic acid tests for all residents after a 17-year-old female villager from Shufu was confirmed as an asymptomatic carrier of the virus on Saturday.

 

Nearly 14,000 medical workers from and outside the prefecture have been dispatched to assist with the testing, making the prefecture capable of dealing with samples from 610,000 more people every day.