All Wuhan residents will be tested for COVID-19 after a new outbreak occurred in the city where the pandemic started, local authorities said.

There were six new coronavirus cases over the weekend in the central Chinese city – the first in the whole of Hubei province for 35 days.

None of the new cases came in from overseas, prompting Wuhan authorities to announce nucleic acid testing of all its residents will happen over 10 days, according to an emergency notice circulated by state-run media outlet The Paper.

Wuhan, with a population of 11 million, was placed on a strict lockdown on 23 January but it was lifted on 8 April and, until the weekend, there had been no new cases since.

Nucleic testing detects the virus’ genetic code and can be more effective at picking up the virus, especially in the early stages, than the more easily carried out immune response tests.

Older people, densely populated communities and areas which are visited by a lot of people will be prioritised, the notice said.

“We must profoundly realise that decisive achievements do not mean decisive victory,” Wang Zhonglin, a member of Hubei Province’s standing committee, told the Changjiang Daily.

“And that downgrading the emergency response does not mean downgrading defence.

“We must not be careless, paralysed and lax.”

The city had been slowly getting back to normal after the 76-day lockdown, with people allowed outside their homes but many businesses remain closed.

China’s government will not be pleased with the new cases as Wuhan had been held up as a shining example to the world for stopping the virus’ spread within the city where it started.

State media reported that Zhang Yuxin, the chief official in Wuhan’s Dongxihu district, was removed from his post “for failures in epidemic prevention and control work at the residential compound” where the new cases were.

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