China is testing the entire population of Wuhan for coronavirus after a cluster of new infections raised alarm bells in the city where the outbreak started.

The move came after authorities reported six new cases of coronavirus in Wuhan on Sunday and Monday. An 89-year-old man was the first confirmed case in the city since last month. A day later, five other people living in the same residential compound tested positive for the virus.
Given the international focus on Wuhan, these new cases pose a political challenge for the Chinese government ahead of a high-profile meeting next week in Beijing. The authorities said the city-wide testing should focus on densely populated areas and migrant workers.
China last month revised up the number of coronavirus deaths in Wuhan – where the outbreak first became public knowledge in January – by 1290 to 3869.
It said at the time there were 50,333 confirmed cases. As of Monday, confirmed cases were 50,339. China does not include asymptomatic cases in its official statistics.
The Morrison government’s call for an international inquiry into the origins of the virus has triggered a trade dispute with China, which this week threatened to impose barley tariffs and suspended beef imports from four Australian abattoirs.
Beijing has dismissed suggestions from Washington that the virus might have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, while some Chinese officials have talked up theories it was brought to the city by the US army. Most scientists believe the virus originated in a seafood market, although the exact origin has not been determined.
A small north-eastern Chinese city called Shulan was locked down on the weekend after 11 new cases were reported. The origins of the new infections in Wuhan and Shulan are unknown, alarming health authorities as more recent cases were from travellers returning from overseas and easier to identify and contain.
Authorities said another cluster reported last month in the city of Harbin, in China’s north, was under control.
Chinese media said a Communist Party official in charge of the neighbourhood in Wuhan where the new cases emerged was sacked.
With China under pressure to reboot its economy, officials are determined to stamp out a second outbreak through extensive testing, targeting key workers such as contacts of confirmed cases, medical workers and workers in nursing homes.
Wuhan was cut off from the rest of China on January 23 when the government closed roads and shut down transport at short notice. At the time the local hospital system was overwhelmed as thousands of people who had contracted the then mysterious new respiratory illness sought treatment.