Wuhan ordered its entire population of 11 million to get tested for COVID-19 after it found 3 local cases

• Wuhan recorded a handful of locally-transmitted coronavirus cases on Monday.
• It is testing its entire population of 11 million in response, officials said.
• The city had not recorded any locally-transmitted cases since May 2020.
• See more stories on Insider's business page .

The Chinese city of Wuhan has ordered its entire population of 11 million people to take coronavirus tests after finding three locally-transmitted cases of the Delta variant, Reuters and the Associated Press reported.

"To ensure that everyone in the city is safe, city-wide nucleic acid testing will be quickly launched for all people to fully screen out positive results and asymptomatic infections," Li Qiang, a Wuhan city official, said Tuesday, according to Reuters.

The three cases recorded on Monday were the first ones that did not come from an outside traveler, Reuters reported. Wuhan, the first epicenter of the global COVID-19 outbreak, had not reported any locally transmitted cases since May 2020.

China reported 90 new cases in total on Monday, the BBC reported . It is unclear how many of those were in Wuhan, aside from the three Delta variant cases.

According to the BBC , this is China's biggest COVID-19 outbreak in months. It has seen around 300 cases in 10 days, prompting some regions to introduce mass testing and new restrictions.