Entire Qingdao population being tested after Covid cases

Qingdao, the major city at the heart of China’s Shandong ‘rubber’ province, has announced plans to test its entire population for coronavirus after 19 new Covid cases were linked to a local hospital. This means all 9 million people living in Qingdao are scheduled to be tested during the five days following Sunday 11 October.

The action follows a similar process in Wuhan, Hebei province which was the epicentre of the pandemic. Here officials tested the entire 11 million population. Wuhan is a centre for vehicle production. Qingdao and the wider Shandong province, on the other hand, are well known as the home to numerous Chinese brand tyre factories. The largest of these include Sailun (in Qingdao) and Triangle (further north in Weihai). International tyre makers also have production facilities in and around Qingdao including, well-known South Korea tyre brand Nexen.