China has adopted stricter criteria for the supervision of the COVID-19 nucleic acid testing process, according to a recent document.

Issued by the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19, the document requires local governments to further implement relevant regulations on the qualification of testing agencies, tightening the examination of agencies and personnel.

According to the document, agencies with a professional medical background and experience, a good practice record, and registered capital consistent with their actual investment will be given priority for approval.

The rules also ask the agencies that carry out COVID-19 tests to meet the requirements of biosafety level 2 and above and PCR laboratory conditions.

The staff who conduct COVID-19 tests also need to be trained before taking their post. Companies that administer mass COVID-19 tests should comply with related regulations and not have been subject to administrative penalties in the past two years.

The management of sample collection, preservation and transportation should also be standardized, including the training of personnel, it said, noting that routine supervision should also be ramped up to continuously improve testing quality.

The document also puts forward specific requirements for the supervision of large-scale nucleic acid testing, nucleic acid testing resources and the exit mechanism for testing institutions. 

At a press briefing on Thursday, an official said the number of daily locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and asymptomatic carriers reported on the Chinese mainland has been below 100 for the past three days.

Measures against local and imported infections and the dynamic zero-COVID policy must be firmly upheld, said Mi Feng, spokesperson for the National Health Commission, at the briefing.

Calling for coordination between epidemic containment and economic and social development, Mi warned against an unrestrained and one-size-fits-all approach at the operational level.

He said local authorities cannot prolong quarantine time or take measures to limit the activities of the people from low-risk areas at their will.

(With input from Xinhua)