Taiwan's Changhua County starts screening for asymptomatic covid cases, public concerns arise

Reporters : Huang Liangjian and Zhang Yuanting 

Publisher : NTD Asia-Pacific Television

Ref : https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2020/08/22/a102924134.html

Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

Image : Video Screenshot

Taiwan's Changhua County Health Bureau violated the central decision by testing asymptomatic people. It was also reported that the KMT did not rule out the implementation of universal entry screening in the 14 ruling counties and cities. Chen Shizhong, the commander of the Central Epidemic Command Center, said that if the number of people in the country is about 250,000, there will be more than 10,000 false positives, which may cause a lot of waste of medical resources and overwhelm the medical system.

Chen Shizhong pointed out, “It’s wrong to do more. If the epidemic prevention is done right, of course, it’s okay to do more. But if there are problems in doing this, sometimes it will cause big problems."

Changhua County's screening of asymptomatic home quarantine patients has caused controversy and has also caused a resurgence of entry screening. Commander Chen Shizhong used data to explain the myth of entry screening. The number of people entering is about 250,000, and the prevalence rate is 0.2%. It is estimated that 500 people are infected. If only general entry screening is carried out without home quarantine, 50 false negative people will enter the community and cause infection. If entry general screening and home quarantine are concurrent, there will also be 12475 false positive people, causing A lot of medical resources are wasted.

Chen Shizhong said, "(False positive) 12475 are basically free of disease, and then sent to the hospital. The medical treatment (capacity) is full, and then when new ones are really needed, it starts crashing, the medical line collapses, and community spread begins."

Chen Shizhong said that the general screening of 250,000 people will cost 800 million more. Although the amount of funding can be sufficient, the subsequent medical pressure is difficult to bear. The Changhua County Health Bureau violated the central decision by testing asymptomatic people. It was reported that the Kuomintang Central Committee planned to increase its solidarity with Changhua by linking up the 14 ruling counties and cities to implement entry screening.

Chen Shizhong commented, "In the general screening, there are restrictions on reagents and time for inspection, and the resulting false positives and false negatives. Then this is a burden that society cannot bear.  So everyone must think carefully."

Chen Shizhong said that epidemic prevention should be handled in accordance with the instructions of the central government. General screening may cause medical collapse and will not be allowed.