Even before urban migrant workers begin trips to their home provinces to celebrate the Lunar New Year on 12 February, China continues to battle a surge in Covid infections.
According to Forbes, medical teams will have access to a new diagnostics tool that’s thought to be more accurate at detecting Covid-19.
CCTV, the public broadcaster in China has announced the development of more accurate “anal swab tests” but these will be reserved for high risk cases. Beijing authorities will be the first to roll out the swab tests to passengers arriving into Beijing and residents of quarantine centres.
The anal swab test may be more accurate than traditional methods said Li Tongzeng of the Respiratory and Infectious Diseases Department at Beijing You An Hospital.
Li said “studies show that the virus lasts longer in the anus or excrement than in the respiratory tract and that an anal test could be better at identifying the disease in mild or asymptomatic cases.
The use of anal swab tests is contentious however. As Covid-19 is a respiratory illness, some media all professionals believe that nose the throat swabs and the most efficient tests.
Yang Zhanqiu, a pathology expert at Wuhan University, told China’s Global Times “There have been cases concerning the coronavirus testing positive in a patient’s excrement, but no evidence has suggested it had been transmitted through one’s digestive system,”
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