Is China Misleading the World Again on Corona?
The World Health Organization believes that China’s efforts to control the corona virus infection have been “perhaps the most ambitious and aggressive in the history of the world”.
But now China is going to conduct corona test of the entire population of Wuhan in ten days due to which the world is speechless. Wuhan became the center of Corona’s infection in January. The first case also came in the month of December.
Wuhan has a population of 11 million. The local administration has started work on planning to conduct a corona test of the entire population here. Under this, first those people who are at high risk will be tested. Like people engaged in health services. Officials say that the process of testing will be done in a phased manner by collecting samples on a large scale.
This ambitious plan of China means that every day one million people will be tested in Wuhan. Right now, there is a testing capacity of forty to sixty thousand every day, which will need to be increased on a big scale.
“We can only hope for a miracle,” says Yanjong Huang, senior fellow of Global Health at the New York-based Council of Foreign Affairs, USA.
Why is the goal of testing so many people?
At the end of last week, this big step has been taken after six new cases were exposed from the same complex in Wuhan. These new cases did not show any symptoms of corona, but their test has come corona positive. Such cases are called asymptomatic, ie in which there is no symptom of getting infected.
After this, orders were given to conduct tests for 5,000 people living in the complex.
Some people say that out of 11 million people, a fair number of people have either left the city before the quarantine or they have been investigated in recent weeks. Therefore, it will not be very difficult for the officials after the testing starts.
40 to 50 lakh people of Wuhan have already been investigated. Yang Zhanki, deputy director of pathological biology at Wuhan University, told the Global Times newspaper, “Wuhan is able to test the remaining sixty to eight million people in ten days.
Even if in reality only 60 to 80 lakh people have to be tested, then for ten days to complete the test, six to eight lakh people will have to be tested everyday and it will be a challenge.
On 22 April, the provincial government of Hubei reported that 89,000 people are being tested every day. This included testing in Hubei’s capital Wuhan. There were 63,000 people testing in a day. According to officials, on May 10, only 40,000 tests were conducted in Wuhan.
Can millions of people be tested so soon?
Some optimistic people say that it is possible if the Chinese government is determined. On May 13, Chinese media quoted Wuhan officials as saying that large-scale testing is mainly done with the help of a third party company. Local hospitals send their people and collect samples.
According to the officials, the third party testing capacity is one lakh per day and hence it is possible that the goal of testing on such a large scale can be achieved in such a short time.
“Therefore testing will be done in a phased manner. Meaning that in some districts, it will start from May 12, in some from May 17 and in all the districts, the testing will be finished within ten days.”
China’s Industry Minister said last month that China can prepare five million test kits every day and more testing centers and labs are being prepared so that samples can be collected and tested.
Professor Yang says that if there is no case in someone’s neighborhood, then it is not necessary to investigate each person.
Speaking to Global Times, he said, “Once negative, one can get infected, you will never know in this way. So it is important to take recourse to epidemiology to know the current situation.”
Danger of Second Round Infection
While many countries have started giving relaxation in their lockdown, the danger of another round of infection with it continues to be a headache for the authorities.
On April 8 in Wuhan, the exemption was given after an 11-week strict lockdown. But now after the arrival of these new cases, the risk of second round infection has increased.
Precautionary steps are also being taken in other cities of China. Train and bus services have been canceled. Movies, gyms and internet cafes have all been shut down.
Chief epidemologist Wu Juniyo of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that the government is on high alert after new cases come back after the negative test. He told government media CCTV, “In Wuhan in fact there have been more than one such case in which the duration of infection is from 30 to 50 days. The virus can maintain its effect in people with weak immunity for more days.”
He further said that there is no need to test everyone in Wuhan. There is no need to get a test done for those who do not have a case in their neighborhood.
Professor Huang says that getting the whole population of Wuhan tested is a ‘very Kharchila ‘is work.
He said, “But keep this in mind, this is China. The way the lockdown was implemented here was no less expensive. But the aim is to provide maximum security at any cost.
