Wuhan, the worst affected city by the coronavirus in China, issued on Tuesday an order to test every resident in the city for the novel coronavirus within 10 days.
This came after Wuhan broke a 35-day record of zero cases on May 9.
For a city that has came out of a 76-day lockdown a bit more than a month ago, that's not good news.
It's a lofty goal taking into consideration that the city is home to more than 11 million people. To meet the set date, authorities must carry out over a million tests per day.
According to a China National Radio report on April 25, Wuhan has 211 sampling centers that can provide standard COVID-19 testing. The maximum capacity is 63,000 tests per day.
An easy calculation will show that it will take more than 170 days to finish all the tests at this rate. Wuhan has to increase its COVID-19 testing capacity by more than 17 times if it were to meet its deadline.
How will this possible?
Details of the implementation have not been revealed, but official documents show that different parts of the city are arranging the tests in their own way.
Reporters in Wuhan reported seeing many communities doing the tests one household at a time.
Residents in Wuhan take swabs from a mother and her daughter during a 10-day campaign on May 13, 2020. /CCTV
Local TV channels ran reports showing medics sanitizing their hands and equipment after each test to prevent cross infection.
"We contacted everybody in our community by WeChat, telephone and in person the day before testing started," Wang Kaiqi, local party secretary of Liujiao Community, told reporters. "Then we sent the name list to local health center for testing."
Wang Kaiqi speaks to local media on the 10-day COVID-19 testing campaign in Wuhan. /CCTV
Wuhan authorities have capped the testing fee at 180 yuan (roughly 25 U.S. dollars). But the cost of the 10-day campaign will be covered by the government. It could cost up to two billion yuan (about 280 million U.S. dollars).