China tests entire city for virus as WHO slams herd immunity idea - Yahoo News

China rushed Tuesday to test an entire city of nine million within days after a minor coronavirus outbreak, as the WHO warned that letting the pathogen run free to achieve herd immunity was "scientifically and ethically problematic".

The virus is still spreading rapidly around the world, with well over 37 million infections, and nations that had suppressed their first outbreaks are now struggling with fresh surges -- especially in some parts of Europe.

our city has taken 3.08 million samples for nucleic testing," the city's health commission said Tuesday, adding that no new positive samples were found.

Chinese officials intend to test the entire city -- around 9.4 million people -- by Thursday.

In opposition to economically painful lockdowns and social distancing, there have been proposals in some countries to let the coronavirus circulate in the population to build up "herd immunity" -- where so much of the population has been infected there are insufficient new victims for the virus to jump to.

"Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday, describing the idea as "scientifically and ethically problematic".