Noticed a change in the urban landscape? Not additions thereto, but rather the absence of structures which were, until recently, a disconcerting reminder of COVID. That’s right, those nucleic-acid testing points.
Assuming one testing booth for every 5,000 people, China now has almost 300,000 nucleic-acid test (NAT) booths going spare. And as it turns out, in some cases, they are free to a good home. Even better, they come in a range of styles and sizes.
Jiangning District is Nanjing’s largest and most populous district. It also generates the largest GDP. Therefore, the local government is sufficiently flush to have been able to splash out on a variety of testing points.
Some resembled glorified Portakabins. Others were not far off the size of small shipping containers.
Therein, multiple rooms in some cases, as well the ability to conduct simultaneous tests out of both sides of the booth.
Not the case elsewhere. Back in November, this correspondent had the pleasure to come across by accident that which was arguably China’s cutest nucleic-acid testing point.
Baita Village falls under the jurisdiction of Yixing in Wuxi City of Jiangsu Province. It’s a place with ambitions to shed stereotypes of the Chinese countryside.
Apparently, those desires even extended to the Village’s NATs. Complete with all the mod cons, the Baita Village testing point (there was only one, pictured below) even had a carpet laid out to welcome VIP village “guests”, i.e. everyone.
But now that it’s all over, those booths have up and down the land started disappearing from the landscape. And not a moment too soon. But what’s happened to them all?
That’s a question answered in part by a recent development a bit more to the east in Suzhou, where such small (and admittedly somewhat less cute) booths have been rounded up and put to good use.
As the Yangtze Evening News reports, a Spring Festival Fair in the Nanmen Commercial Area got underway on 16 January. Therein, 30 idle NAT booths have been repurposed for merchants to use free of charge as booths for the duration of the promotion.
Lasting until 20 March, the booths’ landlords largely sell foodstuffs and handicrafts, plus local cultural products, to a somewhat intrigued clientele. Ms. Zhu, a local resident, said, “It’s a pity to waste. To transform the nucleic-acid sampling point into this small booth; it’s an idea which is very, very good”.
