Se pone en conocimiento de la colonia la nota informativa de la Oficina de Asuntos de Exteriores de Guangdong sobre el test de ácido nucleico en esta provincia:
Explanation on Nucleic Acid Testing in Guangdong
I. Background Information
At present, COVID-19 in Guangdong is under control in general, and the positive trend of epidemic prevention and control continues to consolidate. However, the spread of global pandemic has not been contained yet, and Guangdong is still faced with mounting pressure to prevent imported infections. At the same time, asymptomatic patients, people from high-risk countries and people coming or returning from Wuhan also carry risks of imported cases and virus transmission. The situation of guarding against imported cases and domestic resurgence in Guangdong remains challenging and complex.
Recent
ly, cluster outbreak in some communities and a group of asymptomatic patients have been detected in time through contact tracing, key population groups screening and nucleic acid testing, which has timely and effectively curbed further transmission. Evidence shows that like confirmed cases, asymptomatic patients could also transmit the virus as well, but it is difficult to identify them because they do not feel sick or only show mild symptoms. Thus, only through regular nucleic acid testing can we achieve “early detection, reporting, quarantine and treatment of cases”. On April 22nd, the meeting of the Central Leading Group for COVID-19 Prevention and Control pointed out that it is necessary to improve testing capacity and carry out large-scale nucleic acid and antibody testing on those in need of testing and those who volunteer to get tested. This is conducive to precise prevention and control, safeguarding the health of people, and promoting the comprehensive resumption of work and production.
S
ince the outbreak of the epidemic, Guangdong has attached great importance to the speed, quality and coverage of nucleic acid testing, and has timely deployed the disease control departments, medical institutions and the third-party testing agencies throughout the province to carry out large-scale nucleic acid testing. At present, according to the requirements and scope of screening in Guangdong, the amount of average daily coronavirus tests reaches 60,000 to 80,000. As of April 25th, Guangdong had performed 4.541 million nucleic acid tests. Next, Guangdong will continue to conduct nucleic acid testing in accordance with the unified deployment of the country to ensure that all of the key groups get tested, key industries are spot-checked at the appropriate time, and those who volunteer to receive tests get tested.
II. Who should get tested?
Curre
ntly in Guangdong, the following people should get tested:
a
. Newly admitted patients and their companions at admission, including those who are under medical observation in emergency department and their companions;
b. Patients who seek medical treatment in fever clinics, especially those with such symptoms as fever and/or respiratory il
lness;
c. Outpatients and emergency cases who have had epidemiological historywithin14days;
d. Pa
tients who are going to receive outpatient operation, or invasive manipulation in otolaryngology, ophthalmology, gynecology and obstetrics, stomatology and endoscope room and those who are going to be treated with hemodial
ysis;
e. Patients that medical institutions or medics believe should take the test based on medical risk management
.
B. People entering Guangdong who travelled from overseas or from high-risk area for COVID-19 within 14 days prior to their arrival in Guangdong are required to undergo a 14 home or in designated venues, during which they should be tested.
C. People returning from Wuhan or coming from Hubei province with red or yellow health codes or without such health codes of Guangdong and Hubei should be tested.
D.
Close contacts and potential close contacts of confirmed cases of COVID-19 based on epidemiological investigation are required to receive nucleic acid t
est.
E. Ke
y population groups defined by the quarantine office of customs administration or suspected epidemic victims at border ports are requiredtoreceivenucleicacidte
st.
F. Nucleic acid test screening will be conducted in residential communities, workplace and certain settings where cluster outbreak happened recently or in population groups of key industries
.
G
. The test may also be required in other occasions including patients’ revisit to the hospital after being discharged from the hospital, special survey on epidemiology conducted by the state, or people who are about to resume work, production or school.
III. Nucleic acid test is able to detect infection at an early stage with a high specificity and precision. Now that many countries and regions have found asymptomatic virus carriers, Guangdong, as a densely populated province, needs to expand the scale of tests in order to protect the health and safety of the residents.
The
re isn’t a set number of tests that a person needs to receive to confirm the health state. Due to differences among individuals and the fact that some infected cases can be tested negative at an early stage, there have been some cases who are tested positive after being tested negative for several times. Therefore, a negative result of one test doesn’t guarantee that the person isn’t infected. Generally speaking, the number of tests needed to ascertain whether a person is infected or not should be decided based on the development of the epidemic, the odds of a group being infected and the stage of the epidemic control, etc. If an individual lives in a community where there is already a cluster infection or faces a higher odds of infection, he or she will have to undergo more tests so as to detect the infection and break the transmission chain as early as possible. It is required that all cities and communities must communicate and explain sufficiently and patiently and cannot impose extra requirements on people of some certain nationalities. All people will be treated equally and receive non-discriminatory epidemic control measu
res.
IV.
Further Explanati
on
A. Guangdong Province carries out equal and undifferentiated nucleic acid testing on the above 7 types of people to rule out possible cases. It is advised that those who are included in the ruling-out program cooperate with relevant authorities’ work, which will not only reassure themselves but also better protect the health of their families, friends and other people around them. At the same time, relevant authorities will be recommended to strengthen communication with key groups and handy service for the public for more efficient implementation of the prevention measures.
B. The
result of a nucleic acid test only reflects the situation before the test, and does not mean that one will not be infected after the test.
Therefore, a negative test result for COVID-19 issued within the past 7 days by a qualified testing institution, including medical institutions, disease control departments, independent testing institutions and etc., can be used as an effective certificate to enter a public facility and to return to work and school. Medical institutions, as primary focus, will implement more stringent prevention and control measures, aiming to ensure the health of medical staff and patients and to avoid intra hospital infections as much as possible. During the visit, the doctor will inquire in detail about the epidemiological history and the clinical manifestations of COVID-19. If the medical institution and the doctor deem it necessary, an additional nucleic acid test may be condu
cted.
C. Some individuals may be required to take multiple tests in a short term due to the overlap of some special occasions. For instance, the screening of key groups overlaps unified testing for teachers and students before back to campus; when one who is removed from medical observation or a member of key groups who is ruled out COVID-19 sees a doctor, the medical institution will conduct nucleic acid testing in accordance with requirem
ents.
D.
The requirements for nucleic acid testing may be dynamically adjusted with continuous changes in the epidemic prevention and control situatio
n.