Six confirmed cases of COVID-19 were added in Wuhan in two days, so the risk of epidemic rebound can not be ignored.
In order to effectively strengthen the prevention and control of normalized epidemic situation, on the evening of May 11th, Wuhan issued an urgent notice, requesting to carry out a "ten-day general meeting" of Covid-19 nucleic acid screening for all employees in the city.
According to the notice, nucleic acid screening should focus on all districts and take the whole district as the main body. According to an interview with the First Financial Reporter, at present, all districts in Wuhan are working overtime to formulate specific implementation plans. Taking Wuchang District as an example, Covid-19 nucleic acid screening will be carried out from 13th.
However, the epidemic prevention and control situation in each district is different. The specific time to start nucleic acid testing, whether the major hospitals send doctors into the community or the community organizes residents to go to the hospital for testing in batches, and whether those who have previously received nucleic acid testing need to be re-examined, still need to be clarified by the detailed rules of each district.
On the evening of 12th, the epidemic in Wuhan was "the hardest hit" — — In Jianghan District, some residents told the First Financial Reporter that they had received the registration form of nucleic acid testing information issued by the community, and they needed to fill in the number of people in each family, whether they had received nucleic acid testing and the category of personnel through WeChat applet. On the same day, the "Covid-19 nucleic acid screening work plan for all staff in Wuchang District" has also been issued. According to the plan, "Covid-19’s nucleic acid screening time is from May 13th to May 20th, a total of 8 days. Strive to complete the screening before the 17 th, and use 3 days from 18 to 20 to check for leaks. "
Epidemiology experts believe that there is a correlation between Wuhan’s proposal of all-staff nucleic acid testing and the re-emergence of new cases in the local area. As the city with the earliest outbreak of the epidemic, the infection rate and the degree of community spread in Wuhan are significantly higher than those in other areas. In addition, there are many asymptomatic infected people in Covid-19, so it is necessary for Wu Hanyou to further increase the amount of testing and identify potential risks.
Most economic experts also agree with Wuhan’s full-time nucleic acid testing: although the testing cost is not low, the economic benefits and social benefits brought by it are far greater than the cost. Wuhan’s full-time nucleic acid testing is not only reassuring the people of the whole country, but also conducive to the local promotion of resumption of work.
Full staff detection and investigation of potential risks
On the 9th of this month, a new confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan, which is the new confirmed case reported in Wuhan since April 3rd. On May 10th, there were 5 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan, all of which were from Sanmin Community.
Sanmin Community is located in Dongxihu District, Wuhan. It is an old community with many tenants and complicated situation. There were 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19. At present, Sanmin Community has implemented fully enclosed management and strictly controlled personnel access; Internal and external roads and surrounding shops are fully sterilized.
In Wuhan, there are many old communities like Sanmin Community. On the afternoon of May 11th, Wang Zhonglin, member of the Standing Committee of Hubei Provincial Party Committee and secretary of Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, went to Sanmin Community to inspect the prevention and control work on the spot. In the near future, he should concentrate his efforts to carry out dragnet investigation on the communities with concentrated cases, old communities and complex communities with personnel in the city to ensure that there are no dead ends and loopholes in prevention and control.
The relevant staff of the COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention and Control Command confirmed this "General Assembly War" notice to the First Financial Reporter. It is said that this work was led by the Wuhan Municipal Health and Health Commission.
A person close to the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control headquarters told CBN that since April 8, 1.58 million people in the city have been tested for nucleic acid. However, judging from the problems in Sanmin Community, the scope of nucleic acid detection is still insufficient, and it is necessary to expand the scope of detection in order to effectively prevent the epidemic from rebounding.
Previously, Wuhan had passed antibody testing and screening, which revealed the probability of asymptomatic infection to some extent.
According to the data of Wuhan Health and Health Commission, from March 29th to April 10th, the city screened 143,056 people who returned to work, among whom 113 were positive for nucleic acid, with a positive rate of 0.08%.
"At this time, Wuhan proposed that all the nucleic acid tests were related to the re-emergence of new cases in the local area." According to an epidemiologist, as the city with the earliest outbreak, the infection rate and community spread in Wuhan are significantly higher than those in other areas. In addition, there are many asymptomatic infected people in Covid-19, so it is necessary for Wu Hanyou to further increase the amount of testing and identify potential risks.
It is understood that the specific plan of the Wuhan National Conference on Nucleic Acid Detection will be formulated by the COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters of each district according to the population size of the jurisdiction, the requirements for normalized epidemic prevention and control, and the actual situation of this district.
The Notice requires that the specific plan of each district should clarify the basic situation (population base, number of streets, number of communities, etc.), organization mode and time arrangement (sampling time specific to streets and communities) of the jurisdiction, and each district should make a good plan for all the people in its jurisdiction for nucleic acid screening within a 10-day period, and the relevant testing expenses should be guaranteed by the district finance.
The Notice emphasizes that nucleic acid screening should highlight key points and ensure key populations. Priority should be given to the coverage of key areas, and old residential areas, densely populated residential areas and areas with concentrated floating population should be taken as the focus of investigation, and the scope of investigation should include permanent residents and floating population in the jurisdiction.
The Wuchang district plan obtained by the First Financial Reporter shows that the screening target is all residents, and the key population must be covered by 100%. The screening item is "Covid-19 nucleic acid+serum antibody test".
It is worth noting that this plan has designated nine categories of personnel as "key groups", and the scope has been significantly expanded compared with before.
Increase antibody detection
On May 12th, China Business News reporter interviewed several district-level governments in Wuhan and learned that at present, each district is formulating specific implementation plans.
People from hospitals in Wuhan told the First Financial Reporter that the 10-day time limit of the "Ten-day Congress Battle" is a test for social organizations and the ability to guarantee testing products in Wuhan. "A population of 10 million is tested in 10 days, and one day is a test of 1 million, which is also a test for the energy and physical strength of tens of thousands of medical staff in Wuhan."
"Originally, it was planned to conduct a full-scale nucleic acid test before Wuhan was fully unsealed on April 8, but considering that the spread was too large, it was difficult to assess the impact on the resumption of work and production, and finally a more detailed detection range was delineated." The above-mentioned insiders said.
The scope of the test mentioned by this person refers to that Wuhan had previously carried out a comprehensive nucleic acid test for five types of personnel, including teachers, medical personnel, public transport service personnel, service personnel in public places such as large shopping malls, and personnel in prisons and old-age care institutions, before returning to work, so that all inspections should be completed. At the same time, the general population will be subject to voluntary inspection, and organs, enterprises, institutions and individuals will be included in the category of voluntary inspection.
In 10 days, with a population of 10 million, a daily average of 1 million detection capabilities is needed. Where can this capability be provided?
On April 19th, the 78th press conference was held by the epidemic prevention and control headquarters in novel coronavirus, Hubei Province. Li Qiang, deputy mayor of Wuhan Municipal People’s Government, said that there are 53 nucleic acid detection institutions and 211 nucleic acid detection sites in Wuhan, with an average daily detection capacity of 46,000 people.
"It is said that it must be handed over to a third-party testing company." An expert from a local disease control department told the First Financial Reporter.
How many local third-party testing institutions are there in Wuhan? On April 21st, Hubei Province published a list of third-party testing institutions that can carry out nucleic acid testing in novel coronavirus, among which there are 12 testing institutions in China.
During the previous investigation of CBN, it was found that the average daily detection capacity of these third-party testing institutions was between 50 million and 30,000 person-times. Even if the average daily testing capacity of these 12 companies is improved to 30,000, the daily testing capacity is only 360,000 person-times, plus 46,000 person-times of medical institutions, which is still far from the required daily testing capacity of nearly one million.
The above-mentioned hospital people believe that it is necessary to carry out nucleic acid testing for all staff two months ago. "Now, it is ok to do nucleic acid testing for people over the age of 60, and antibody testing for people under the age of 60. This may be more efficient. " It told the First Financial Reporter.
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of China CDC, also pointed out in an interview with the media that in those communities without cases, it is not necessary for everyone to do screening, mainly for people in key positions, key populations and key communities.
Conducive to Wuhan economic recovery
Although there are still different opinions in the medical field on the necessity of full-scale testing, the business and economic circles are in favor of it.
In fact, as early as the beginning of April, Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun International, suggested that Wuhan could reduce the possibility of a second outbreak of the epidemic through comprehensive testing and help the society to resume normal production and life as soon as possible.
In view of the comprehensive inspection in Wuhan, Guo Guangchang also calculated an economic account: "At present, the inspection cost per capita is about 200 yuan RMB. According to the 11 million citizens in Wuhan, it will cost 2.2 billion yuan to do it all, which sounds like a big number. However, if it is not tested, there will be fear in everyone’s heart, many enterprises will not be able to resume work and production, and no one will patronize the service industry. The loss in one day alone will reach 6 billion yuan. Moreover, with the further scale and standardization of nucleic acid detection, the cost will actually be lower. "
Luo Zhi, director of the New Private Economy Research Center of Wuhan University, believes that although the testing cost is not low, the economic benefits and social benefits brought by it far outweigh the costs.
First of all, it is very difficult for enterprises in Wuhan to do business in other places, or for foreign enterprises to do business in Wuhan. The main reason is that foreign countries think that Wuhan carries viruses, and even products in Wuhan carry viruses. Doing a full-time nucleic acid test is to tell the outside world the current real situation in Wuhan and alleviate the concerns about Wuhan.
Second, the whole staff’s nucleic acid testing is also conducive to the recovery of Wuhan’s business. Although it has been resumed for more than a month, Wuhan’s business is still very depressed. Large-scale shops have withdrawn their rents and closed down, and nearly half of the shops on the street are closed. There are two reasons for this: first, the actual income or expected income of residents has declined, which leads to the fear of spending money, and second, people are still worried about the safety of consumption outside. All-staff testing can at least eliminate the second concern, let everyone dare to go to the streets and dare to spend, which is conducive to the recovery of business.
In addition, Wuhan is a university town, and millions of college students, especially foreign students, are afraid to go back to school without nucleic acid testing. College students are an important source of vitality in Wuhan. Getting college students back to school and starting school as soon as possible can enhance the vitality of the city.
"(All staff nucleic acid testing) This matter should be done as soon as possible." A regional economic expert told the First Financial Reporter that in 2019, Wuhan’s GDP reached 1,622.3 billion yuan, and the total social zero was 744.9 billion yuan, with an average of 4.45 billion yuan and 2.04 billion yuan each day. "How much is the loss for one more day?" Is this account still counted? "
