More than 10,000 medical workers from 19 provincial-level regions have been sent to Hainan province to assist in its fight against a recent COVID-19 outbreak, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission's bureau of medical administration, said the outbreak in Hainan has spread silently for some time and due to the highly transmissible nature of the Omicron variant the epidemic situation in the province is complicated, severe and developing rapidly.

As the province's medical resources are below the national average, the commission has sent medical workers from around the country to help Hainan.

Almost 8,000 medical workers were sent there to conduct nucleic acid tests and as a result, the province has the capacity to evaluate 2.4 million nucleic acid test tubes daily, a total potential daily capacity of 24 million tests.

The commission also sent more than 2,000 medical workers to treat patients and almost 300 workers to handle epidemiological investigation and supervision, she said.

The key is to ensure the efficiency and quality of nucleic acid tests to discover positive cases as soon as possible, Guo said.

Quick contact tracing and quarantining of people at risk are also important to contain the outbreak, she said.

With assistance from around the country and strong measures taken by the local government, the outbreak in Hainan will be effectively contained soon, she added.