China is building hundreds of testing laboratories and stocking up on tests to ramp up screening for the coronavirus, even in healthy people, having all but stamped out local transmission of the disease.
China is looking to make testing universal, available in every corner of the mainland.
Procurement documents and official notices show it is sharply expanding its testing capability, already the world's largest, extending it even to rural health facilities as it looks to revive the economy after an unprecedented plunge in the first quarter.
On Monday, the National Health Commission said it would look to "normalise" nucleic acid testing.
"If they're willing to be checked, check them all," said the policy notice.
China has stepped up spending on testing for coronavirus even though the country has all but quashed the virus Source: AAP
Life is increasingly returning to normal in China, where the outbreak first emerged in the city of Wuhan late last year.
Last month, Wuhan tested about six million people over 10 days at a cost of 900 million yuan ($A183 million), an initiative some experts said largely had the benefit of boosting confidence.
Unlike many countries, tests are widely available in China.
Hundreds of bidding documents issued by hospitals and centres for disease control in every province since the beginning of May list requirements for new testing labs, painting a picture of a fast-paced national program.
The most expensive items are polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines, a key testing component documents show can cost up to $99,000.
Chinese organisations bought 257 PCR laboratories in the last 30 days, according to listings on procurement platform Jianyu360, compared with an average of 21 per month in the previous 12 months.
Those figures represent a fraction of the total, as not all projects are detailed in public procurements.
For more than two weeks after the virus was identified in January, no hospitals in Wuhan - a city of 11 million - were equipped to conduct tests, meaning no new cases were confirmed until days before the city's lockdown.
Most of the new labs are being installed in hospitals.
Some institutions require all equipment to be produced within China, though others call for specific foreign-made gear, including PCRs made by Switzerland's Roche Holding AG and US-based Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc.
