Operation of an inflatable laboratory for COVID-19 testing began on Monday in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, as infections continued to rise across the city.

The laboratory, located in the Pazhou area of the city's Haizhu district — which was hardest-hit by the latest pandemic spate — is capable of testing up to 80,000 samples a day, according to a local official.

"The laboratory will improve the speed of testing, allowing us to find and handle the risk of virus infections more quickly," said Su Mingqing, deputy district head of Haizhu, during a news conference on Monday.

Local authorities have optimized the layout of nucleic acid tests across the district, with 317 sampling sites in large and medium-sized communities and buildings in urban villages.

Guangzhou reported its highest level of infections in a single day on Monday, with 147 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and 4,977 asymptomatic carriers, according to the local health authority.