Chinese citizens can now buy rapid antigen test kits as the country seeks to augment COVID-19 testing with a lower-cost, faster method than nucleic acid tests, which have been widely used in the country. A self-test kit is priced between 20 and 30 yuan (about $3-5) and gives results in about 20 minutes as opposed to a nucleic acid test that costs about 40 yuan (about $6) and takes several hours to produce results. 

"It's safe and convenient as people don't have to queue up at hospitals or (nucleic acid testing sites) in residential complexes. And they don't cost too much," said Wu, a resident of Wuhan City in central China's Hubei Province.