[ad_1]
Graubünden is the first canton to plan crown tests at the national level. China, Slovakia and Austria are already betting it. An overview.
Green field testing: People are waiting for the Covid-19 defamation in the Slovak capital, Bratislava.
Photo: Keystone, October 31, 2020.
Graubünden is the first canton to use mass testing (to report), IThe press release speaks of “surface testing.” As part of a pilot project between December 11 and 13, 2020, the entire population will be tested voluntarily in Maloja (large tourist region), Bernina (high number of cases) and Engiadina Bassa / Val Müstair. This pilot project is intended to create the starting point for conducting a canton-wide area test if necessary.
What is Switzerland’s position on mass testing so far?
For a long time, most people in Switzerland rejected the topic of mass corona tests. One is not prepared for it, there were also doubts about the meaning of this measure. “Testing an entire population is very expensive and requires a lot of organization. We don’t have to try them all at once, we just have to try more than we do now », said American-British epidemiologist Emma Hodcroft, who conducts research in Switzerland, in an interview.
Meanwhile in Massive tests in China months ago performed in cities of one million and proclaimed as part of the supposedly successful strategy against Corona.
rethe term Until now, mass testing has only appeared in connection with large-scale enterprise testing (about FIG) or nursing homes. However, two weeks ago, the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) announced that they were interested in mass testing be.
In which countries have massive tests been carried out?
China He has been practicing the massive tests for months. If multiple cases of corona occur in a region or city, ruft the state generally requires crown testing nationwide. This is what happened in Wuhan, the probable place of origin of the new type of coronavirus, but recently also in the metropolis of Qingdao in the northeast of the country. The metropolis of 9 million registered twelve new cases in October, after which the entire population was evaluated within five days.
the Slovakia it was the first European country to rely on massive testing in late October. This after a violent virus outbreak was recorded in the meantime. All 5.5 million residents were called in for the crown smear
Meanwhile, more and more countries and regions seem to rely on extensive testing. Then it begins Austria today with a corresponding program. The Italian region Südtirol held on November 2-Medium a massive test. The goal that in order to two thirds of the 500,000 inhabitants will be reached done.
What success has it brought?
China proclaims the implementation of mass tests as a one-size-fits-all measure in the fight against Corona. The figures seem to show that the authoritarian-led state is right. While the Western world in particular, from Italy to the US, is constantly struggling with new outbreaks, the official figures in China are very low.
The Qingdao case showed that massive testing can really work. The researchers wrote in «New England Journal of Medicine“All residents of the metropolis were screened for Sars-CoV-2 in October after a mini outbreak. The tests were carried out in more than 4,000 centers and in this way another nine infections were detected. The mini outbreak was apparently controlled without a blockage.
To test in the Slovakia there is no official balance available yet. It’s clear that the number of infections has dropped dramatically since the beginning of November.
The massive test in Slovakia had a nasty side effect Indeed. In view of the expense of millions of tests, there was no more capacity to follow up on subsequent contacts than those who tested positive. Also, despite knowing that rapid antigen tests were less reliable, there were no control tests if someone tested positive. Result: Slovakia is now gradually moving away from its strategy of mass crown testing at the national level.
In the massive test in Südtirol tested on over 350,000 citizens more than 3,600 positive cases discovered. Quarantine was ordered for those infected.
Are people forced to take the test?
At Slovakia Participation was formally voluntary, but those who didn’t have a negative test couldn’t even go to work for two weeks. Thus, in the first of several rounds of testing alone, 3.6 million of the 5.5 million inhabitants underwent rapid antigen testing.
Unlike Slovakia, the massive test is in Austria not associated with retaliation. However, political exponents also campaigned on behalf of the people of the neighboring country. certain occupational groups– for example, teachers, caregivers or police officers – have them analyzed.
How do you carry out massive tests in a short time?
China relies on what is known as a bulk test pool. The samples taken are combined into groups of, for example, 10 to 20 samples and examined as a whole. If the corona test shows negative results for this mixture, then it can be assumed that the individual samples are also negative. The advantage: He only used one trial instead of ten or twenty. If the result is positive, each person should be tested individually. In this case, you have “wasted” a test.
This test procedure saves time and resources. At the same time, more people can be tested. The Red Cross blood donation service in Frankfurt am Main has developed its own pooling procedure. This should allow the number of corona exams nationwide to be increased from currently 40,000 to 200,000 to 400,000 tests per day, “without reducing the high quality of diagnoses”, as the “Deutsches Ärzteblatt” writes.
This method is best suited at the beginning of the spread of a pandemic rather than when it is almost too late. So too many people are potentially infected, leading to numerous multiple tests when pooling.
* with material from the Keystone-SDA agency
