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China Approves Five COVID-19 Antigen Kits for Self-testing

A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a mobile nucleic acid testing site for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), following the outbreak, in Beijing, China February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a mobile nucleic acid testing site for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), following the outbreak, in Beijing, China February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
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China Approves Five COVID-19 Antigen Kits for Self-testing

A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a mobile nucleic acid testing site for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), following the outbreak, in Beijing, China February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a mobile nucleic acid testing site for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), following the outbreak, in Beijing, China February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

China has granted approval to five COVID-19 antigen kits made by local companies to be used for self-testing, state broadcaster CCTV said on Saturday, as it tweaks its testing regime that has been pressured by Omicron.

China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) published a notice on Friday saying Beijing Huaketai Biotechnology had been allowed to make changes to its COVID-19 antigen test kit's device certificate, Reuters said.

It published a similar approval for four other companies, Nanjing Vazyme Biotech, Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech, Beijing Jinwofu Bioengineering Technology and a BGI Genomics subsidiary, Shenzhen Huada Yinyuan Pharmaceutical Technology, on Saturday.

While the NMPA did not provide more information, CCTV said the NMPA approvals marked the official market launch of new COVID-19 antigen self-test kits.

The approvals come after the country's health regulator on Friday said it would allow the general public to buy COVID-19 antigen self-test kits in stores and online for the first time.

In the past two years, medical workers in many Chinese cities have swabbed hundreds of thousands of noses and throats within days after just a handful of cases emerged, using nucleic acid tests that require labs to process samples. The scale of effort has helped China keep its caseload tiny by global standards.

However, some experts said it has become increasingly challenging for that strategy to keep up with the spread of the Omicron variant. China's daily rise of domestically transmitted cases reached a two-year high this week with many asymptomatic carriers.

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Trump Signs Raft of Executive Orders on Day 1 

US President Donald Trump signs numerous executive orders, including pardons for defendants from the January 6th riots and a delay on the TikTok ban, on the first day of his presidency in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 20 January 2025. (EPA)
US President Donald Trump signs numerous executive orders, including pardons for defendants from the January 6th riots and a delay on the TikTok ban, on the first day of his presidency in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 20 January 2025. (EPA)
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Trump Signs Raft of Executive Orders on Day 1 

US President Donald Trump signs numerous executive orders, including pardons for defendants from the January 6th riots and a delay on the TikTok ban, on the first day of his presidency in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 20 January 2025. (EPA)
US President Donald Trump signs numerous executive orders, including pardons for defendants from the January 6th riots and a delay on the TikTok ban, on the first day of his presidency in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 20 January 2025. (EPA)

On the first day of his new term, President Donald Trump signed orders ranging from climate to immigration, along with sweeping pardons for many of those who stormed the capital on January 6, 2021.

Some of his orders delivered on promises he made during the 2024 campaign. Others, like a withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), had not been expected.

Here is a summary of the orders Trump signed at a Washington arena packed with supporters, and later at the White House, after he was sworn in as president.

- Immigration -

Trump signed various orders aimed at reshaping how the United States manages immigration and citizenship.

One declared a national emergency at the southern border.

Trump also promised a mass deportation operation involving the military, which he says will target those he called "criminal aliens."

In the Oval Office, Trump signed an order revoking birthright citizenship.

But automatic US citizenship to people born in the country is enshrined in the Constitution, and Trump's action is certain to face a legal challenge.

- January 6 rioters -

Trump signed pardons for some of the 1,500 participants in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters trying to overturn the 2020 election.

He again referred to those who were convicted or pleaded guilty over the riots as "hostages."

- Paris Climate accord -

The president immediately withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord, repeating an action he took during his first term.

The order extends Trump's defiant rejection of global efforts to combat planetary warming as catastrophic weather events intensify worldwide.

It would take a year to leave the agreement after submitting a formal notice to the United Nations framework that underpins global climate negotiations.

- Oil drilling -

Trump signed an order declaring a "national energy emergency" aimed at significantly expanding drilling in the world's top oil and gas producer.

"We will drill, baby, drill," Trump said in his inaugural address.

- Work from home -

Another order requires federal workers to return to the office full-time, with Trump seeking to undo most of the work-from-home allowances that flourished during the Covid-19 pandemic.

- Leaving WHO -

Trump signed an order for the United States to exit the World Health Organization, insisting Washington was unfairly paying more than China into the UN body.

- TikTok -

The president ordered a 75-day pause on enforcing a law that would effectively ban TikTok.

His action delayed implementation of an act that came into effect this week, prohibiting the distribution and updating of TikTok in the United States.

Trump has said the app's Chinese parent company must agree to sell a fifty percent share to the United States.

- West Bank settlers -

Trump revoked sanctions against violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank accused of abuses against Palestinians, undoing an unprecedented action taken by Joe Biden's administration.

- Cuba -

Reversing another one of Biden's more recent moves, Trump removed Cuba from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.

Biden had removed Cuba from the list only days earlier as part of a deal to free prisoners.