Test runs have started of the new Lijiang Sightseeing Train. See:
www.chinadaily.com.cn/[...]

This is not new. Combined testing has been the norm in all this mass testing. If your batch receives a positive you get an orange code and you have to go for an individual test. These tests are not at the same place so you don’t queue with the general public.

These combination testing is not geared to see if you as an individual have Covid but to see if there is any Covid in the community at large. Combined testing is thus done if it is expected that there is no Covid.

For the period I have some official data, that was September 25 to 28, 6.54 million tests were done in Kunming and all were negative. That means that still 654 thousand batches had to be analysed. Some 220 thousand per day so it is still an enormous operation.

The benefit of combined testing is cost saving. You can get an individual test as well but they cost 16 kuai.

So be happy that there is combined testing because basically it means that there is no Covid.

For the official report quoted above see:
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/rJh3WDDDdJXzAGrzLy55-A

@livinginchina
The zero covid policy is not to have zero covid but aimed at reducing the impact of Covid. If it is the right policy or not I cannot say, I am not an epidemiologist, but what is known is that the Chinese vaccines efficiency rate combined with in certain area and groups low vaccination rate cannot give herd immunity to protect all.
I am double vaccinated and boosted but that already quite some time ago and with vaccines modelled at the than prevalent strains of Covid. That means basically that I and the rest of China are not prepared, vaccine wise, for the onslaught of Omicron. The result of that would be an overwhelmed health care system that would collapse.
The whole idea of pandemic control is to avoid the collapse of the healthcare system. China till now could avoid a collapse because it could draw health workers from other parts of China that were not affected. If Omicron goes on a stampede this would not be possible anymore. You have to realise that in other countries Omicron had a limited death rate because all the vulnerable people had already died of earlier strains of Covid.
Indeed forever zero covid is not possible but the aim is to buy time to develop Omicron specific boosters that will dampen the impact of epidemic covid in China.

More elephant news:
www.chinadaily.com.cn/[...]

@ livinginchina @ bubbliyan
They have rapid tests if you go to a place that has them and pay for it.

I got results twice of a free, combined, test within 5 hours.

You have to understand that these free test are not directly for the benefit of you as a private individual but for the health authorities to keep a picture of what is going on in the community at large. Also they are a free service to you if you have the results within the period that you need it.