Dew Magnani
04/24/2020 - 16:40
- Clarín.com
- Society
If it is positive, it is positive. The conclusion is not exhaustive, but it serves to understand how the massive rapid trains that were launched today at the Constitución train station work and that will continue from Monday in Once and Retiro, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. With long lines of volunteers, the first of the testing operations began with the 170,000 kits purchased by the Government.
Many came especially close, others traveled earlier to get tested before going to work, and there were even those -who were caught unaware- when they arrived at the station. The expectation was strong and, after ten minutes after 9, the Federal police began to warn that the 400 available spots had already been exhausted . Very few moved.
"Today I traveled especially from Lanús to take the test," said Sandra, 45, from a secondary row, which at around noon gathered more than a hundred people. "They told me there were limited supplies, but I already came, so I'm going to wait and see if they will do the same to me." Beside him - a meter and a half away - a woman sat on a bench: "They don't tell us how long this can take."
The purpose of this test is not to detect whether a person has the virus. For this, Argentina uses PCRs , which require another process and very different times: the patient is given a nasopharyngeal swab and sent to one of the more than 140 laboratories that make up the network coordinated by Anlis Malbrán , where they will investigate whether the genome virus is present in the sample.
Personnel from the Ministry of Health carry out a test for coronavirus this Friday, at the ConstituciónEFE / Juan Ignacio Roncoroni station
Rapid tests, on the other hand, are done with a simple prick of the finger and serve to identify antibodies, that is, whether the person had contact with the virus or not. The Ministry of Health will use them only for those who do not present symptoms compatible with Covid 19 and in order to have statistical information on people who use public transport, the space where it is most difficult to maintain physical distance.
The evaluations will be voluntary and anonymous. They started this Friday in Constitution, they will be held at different "sentinel test points" in train terminals, bus and subway, in the City of Buenos Aires, and will be repeated in the same places every 14 or 21 days , depending on the departure phases insulation.
The tests, which started at that train terminal, are anonymous and voluntary. In Constitution Station 24/04 / 20Photo: Rafael Maruio Quinteros
"It is a way of protecting my family and it only takes fifteen minutes," said Mario, 57, from one of the first places in the main row. He found out on the radio and took the train at 7.30 to be early. "They explained to me that I don't have to have had symptoms in the last month," she says through a homemade mask, which she made with a water bottle. A few meters away, a cleaning operator, wearing a white biological safety suit, disinfects the pinwheels.
The requirements to participate in the "Covid Health Surveillance Study 19" are to be over 18 years of age and have not had fever or respiratory symptoms or sudden loss of sense of smell and taste in the last 21 days . In Constitución, the place chosen for the tests was the room next to platform 14, on the side of the 9 de Julio highway. The mechanics, that of any procedure.
Step by Step
Station one: Mario is sitting and waiting to be called. Station two: they will interview you to see if you meet the criteria for the study and they will perform a thermal scanner to ensure that you do not have a fever. Station three: a technician will prick your finger, draw a few drops of blood and put them on a reagent. Station Four: You will wait again seated until you are called by name on a screen. Station five: they will tell you how the trial came out. Two lines is positive.
"For me this is fundamental, in South Korea they implemented it and were able to attack it quickly," Clara (43), from Ezpeleta, said in dialogue with this newspaper. “Personally, I am concerned that I have been in contact with the virus. At home, we are nine people, including my 75-year-old parents, and I work on the street all day. It is very difficult, very traumatic, the moment to arrive. I arrive and leave the clothes outside, but I know that I exposed myself, because it is many hours. There is no way to take good care of yourself. ”
They started doing quick tests at the Constitución station. EFE / Juan Ignacio Roncoroni
While waiting for the results, a group of workers advises the volunteers and provides information. People who test positive in this type of test have already generated antibodies asymptomatically, which means that they will not be isolated preventively or subjected to a PCR test ; neither are his relatives. Of course, that they have generated antibodies does not mean that they are immune to a new contagion, so it is important to continue with the basic measures of social distancing and handwashing, they explain.
Roberto, 58, is another one who came specifically to be tested. “I am from Malvinas Argentinas and a few days ago I returned to work. I am very concerned, because I am anemic and I am afraid of having low defenses in such a situation, ”he explained. Around noon, some 80 people had already obtained their results, while another two hundred were waiting outside, in the main hall of the station.
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