Mexico City has launched a test-and-trace approach to containing the coronavirus, after a rise in hospitalisations that has raised fears of a new economic lockdown in one of the world’s largest urban centres.

Mexico City is proposing to double the number of daily coronavirus tests to 10,000 by adding rapid testing at pop-up sites in highly populated areas, health centres and at sports stadiums including the legendary Azteca Stadium.

The local government has established a new contract tracing program using QR codes, which registers the phone numbers of customers at stores and restaurants so they can be contacted in the event that they have contact with an infected person.

“The goal ... is to break the chain of contagion by identifying and isolating positive cases early,” the Mexico City Health Department said in a statement to Reuters, adding that the testing would continue until the infection curve was flattened.