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Written by: Hao Ziyu, Huang Yunna
2020-04-02 22:25
Last updated: 2020-04-02 22:25The new coronavirus (COVID-19) pneumonia epidemic has been raging for more than three months, and so far (April 2), nearly 930,000 people have been diagnosed worldwide; in view of the local transmission chain caused by returning patients from Europe, a second wave of outbreaks has occurred in Hong Kong In the past week, more than 300 confirmed cases have surged, and a total of 802 people have been infected. However, as Hong Kong people from Europe, the United States, and Europe returned from March 19, many epidemic prevention experts have called on the SAR government to strengthen virus detection, but the authorities only tested 1,000 samples a day. Until last week, the Department of Microbiology at the University of Hong Kong gave a lecture Professor Yuan Guoyong once again urged the authorities to increase the number to 7,500 per day. However, the Hong Kong government has not only survived but also played "digital games", saying that the per capita detection rate is already the highest in Asia and the highest in the world. However, the trick of self-deception can't conceal the fact that the daily detection ability is low. Taking the neighboring Shenzhen as an example, the daily detection volume has exceeded 10,000. While the world is waiting for it urgently, it does not face the limitation of its own capacity, nor does it rely on the strength of academics and private laboratories. This is what the SAR Government has threatened to create “testing and certification” as the six major industries!
Yuan Guoyong called on the government to increase the daily testing volume to 7,500 samples, but the government only maintained 1,000. (Profile picture)
"I believe that everyone in Hong Kong wants to do something for the epidemic as long as he has the ability. But can it be done? It doesn't seem to work. If the police can't finish it, they will ask the Civil Security Team for help. Why doesn't the government give" merchants " Opportunity? Regarding testing, both university professors and private companies can provide technical and instrumental help. One is not enough and two can work together. "Talking about the stagnant testing efficiency of the SAR government, the chairman of the Hong Kong Testing and Certification Bureau and Hong Kong Yu Changhai, president of the Biotechnology Association, was helpless.
Under the name of Changhai, Hong Kong Haikang Life Technology Co., Ltd. has successfully developed a rapid detection of new crown virus technology-"Enhanced Real-Time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction" (ERT-PCR). The "reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction" (RT-qPCR) technology used by the government has 10 times higher sensitivity, can detect asymptomatic invisible patients with low virus concentration within 4 to 5 hours, and the reagent cost is low To 50 yuan, 400 samples can be tested at one time. He wrote to the SAR government as early as March to inform him of the existence of this technology, hoping to donate it to the society for free. Unfortunately, the authorities have not responded.
Yu Changhai, chairman of the Hong Kong Testing and Certification Bureau and chairman of the Hong Kong Biotechnology Association, believes that the government should make good use of the power of folk biotechnology to conduct virus testing for more people. (Profile picture)
King Xiang deliberately, but Goddess has no intention. In fact, in addition to Yu Changhai's team, Wen Weijia, a professor of physics at the University of Science and Technology, and his students have also developed an instrument that can detect new coronary pneumonia in 40 minutes; the University of Science and Technology also announced the successful development of a rapid diagnostic system that can be used in Successful detection of 40 pathogens including neocoronary pneumonia in one hour; Li Ka-shing Medical School of the University of Hong Kong also has a two-hour rapid detection technology that is currently available in public health laboratories in at least 40 countries around the world-the problem is that these None of the technology has been absorbed by the SAR government, which has failed to help the authorities to improve the efficiency of virus detection.
According to Huang Jiaqing, director of the Center for Health Protection of the Department of Health, on March 31, from January to March 30, the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority conducted a total of 90,000 new coronavirus tests; in other words, in the past 90 days, the Hong Kong Government An average of 1,000 virus tests are completed daily. However, Huang Jiaqing calculated the total number of tests divided by the total population of Hong Kong. The per capita detection rate was estimated to be 12,000 per 1 million Hong Kong people tested for the virus, and compared with 6,800 in Singapore and 7,000 in South Korea. By comparison, this means that Hong Kong's detection volume is the highest in Asia and the world's most advanced, but it ignores the problem of low average daily detection efficiency.
Temperature detection alone may not be enough to prevent virus transmission. (Profile picture)
Since Chief Executive Lin Zheng Yue'e stated on March 10 that the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority can test up to 1,000 samples per day and can increase the number to 2,000. No matter how severe the epidemic is, the Hong Kong government has only maintained a similar daily average. Detection level; until March 28, the authorities said that more than 2,000 samples were tested daily-what is this concept? If all the samples are from newly arrived Hong Kong people, based on the 4,662 Hong Kong residents and other visitors who entered Hong Kong on the same day, only less than half will be inspected, which is far from the comprehensive testing advocated by epidemic prevention experts such as Yuan Guoyong-why the efficiency is so low ? The Department of Health did not respond positively to media enquiries, only referring to the expanded testing plan. At present, there are seven laboratories in the network of hospitals providing rapid testing-as to how much human resources are involved and how can we improve the testing efficiency to the level recommended by experts? The Department also answered all questions.
In the neighbouring regions, taking South Korea as an example, nearly 400,000 tests have been performed since the outbreak, that is, an average of more than 4,400 samples are tested daily, which is four times that of Hong Kong. As for neighboring Shenzhen, as early as February, 28 medical institutions have been approved to carry the new crown virus disease side-the medical testing laboratory under the Luohu Hospital Group alone can already detect 200 to 400 samples per day, up to more It can reach 1,000; by mid-February, the average daily detection volume of Shenzhen Huada Gene Group has exceeded 10,000, and the Shenzhen Dapeng Fire-Eye Laboratory, which has a daily detection throughput of 10,000, has been officially put into operation.
Yu Changhai suggested that the authorities establish a public sample bank for access by qualified scientific research institutions to promote the development of testing technology. (Profile picture)
"The Hong Kong government only uses its own system for virus detection, but it has forgotten. In fact, many biotechnology companies have this ability ... Why are there biotechnology companies? It is for the development of technology! Yu Changhai said that the government has failed to use private biotechnology to improve the detection efficiency. "It's like Huang Feihong came out of the Shaolin Temple to open his own store, but when he needs to protect his home and defend the country, he can only let the people in the Shaolin Temple go. What about the masters who open stores outside? Sorry, it's not your business. "
He believes that biotechnology companies are much more mobile and flexible than the government. "You can always ask people, buy equipment, and even do two or three shifts to run projects. People who do business will do everything they can. To research, to produce, to operate. "Indeed, according to the results of the" Medical Health Service Manpower Survey 2017 ", there are 3,426 medical chemists in Hong Kong, of which 80% have been employed by the HA, but the chemists are divided into four major Subjects, and only those under the Ministry of Microbiology will be tested for New Coronavirus-some media reported earlier that some chemists need to work for two weeks and work nearly 13 hours a day.
At present, many scientific research institutions have come up with a contribution for Hong Kong, but the government seems to rely only on its own strength. (Profile picture)
The government itself is understaffed, but it has nothing to do with it. "Just use your own knife and don't consider other knives. Even if you have a" King of Heavenly Dragon Sword ", it just won't give you a" grinding stone. " There is no way to sharpen the knife. So many people cannot test. "Yu Changhai explained that although the technology of biotechnology companies has reached a certain level, they need more clinical samples to further improve the level." Clinical samples are ours. "Whetstone", we need to sharpen the knife with "Whetstone" so that it will be sharper. "
However, when the government insisted on relying on its own resources to exclude civilian power, "what else do we need to do as biotech companies? ... you can only find some" sand "to sharpen the knife yourself, such as helping small Employees of the company conduct tests, etc ... Some laboratories and companies may even use relationships if they want to get hospital samples, but I do n’t think that using relationships to solve problems should occur in Hong Kong. ”He suggested Authorities have established a public sample bank for access to qualified scientific research institutions to promote the development of testing technology.
The epidemic is like a battle. The inflexible response will only keep the rules in place and unknowingly become a stumbling block to fight the epidemic. Yu Changhai asked: "After SARS, everyone feels that it will not come again (large public health crisis). Now the epidemic has come back and found out that the world is not ready. So when will humans be ready? ———— Let us answer this question with an interesting set of numbers. Between 2008 and 2016, the “Inspection and Certification” industry, which was listed by the SAR Government as one of the “Six Advantage Industries,” accounted for the increase in output value. It increased from 4.5 billion yuan in 2008 to 7.3 billion yuan in 2016, and its GDP share remained at 0.3%; while the number of related employees also increased from 12,400 to 14,000, and its employment share remained at 0.4 %.
New Crown Pneumonia Genetic Testing Biotechnology Biotechnology Company Innovation and Technology Bureau Special Administrative Region Government