BEIJING: China on Friday said it would for the first time allow the general public to use rapid COVID-19 antigen tests that do not need medical workers to take samples as it steps up efforts to ensure infections are identified at an early stage.

In China’s latest and previous local outbreaks, many Chinese cities had tested tens of thousands of people after a handful of cases emerged.

That strategy could become more challenging as the daily rise in domestically-transmitted cases reached a two-year high for the country this week, as the highly contagious Omicron variant spreads and many carriers are asymptomatic.

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Antigen tests that can be used by individuals have helped to relieve testing bottlenecks in countries such Singapore and South Korea, while China, where case numbers remained relatively low, relied on nucleic acid tests that require medical professionals to take samples.

People under quarantine or lockdown will be able to use self-use antigen tests under supervision of the authorities, while other residents who need such tests will be able to buy kits in stores or online, the National Health Commission said on its website.

China has boosted its nucleic acid testing capacity in the last two years and those tests will continue to be used for diagnosis of those who test positive for COVID-19. Those who tested positive using antigen test and those negative but showing suspicious symptoms should still undergo nucleic acid tests.

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Chinese authorities said in February that rapid antigen tests are allowed for staffers working on ships that arrive from abroad when nucleic acid tests are unavailable, without specifying whether those antigen tests could be used without medical workers taking samples or not.