Virus Testing | Summary of "Ten Reels" in a Year, Beware of One Child Wrongly Fighting the Epidemic

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Written by: Zhu Haiqi and Zheng Cuibi

2021-03-10 07:00

Last update date: 2021-03-10 07:00

One year after the epidemic, the government has often emphasized the need to "detect early detection" of patients through virus testing. However, the testing work has been "missing". Some testers have lost information about citizens, and laboratories suspected of being contaminated have "false positives". What's more, due to the need to resume economic activities, the amount of testing has greatly increased. The contractor cannot cope with the situation and the situation has been delayed. Some patients have to hand in the sample bottles for several days to be diagnosed, which increases the risk of spreading drugs.

This article summarizes the "ten reels" in detection, and the authorities must take precautions, and don't let a small mistake make the fight against the epidemic fall short.

1. Testing volume lags behind demand

Professor Yuan Guoyong of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Hong Kong has repeatedly reminded the government to increase the number of tests last year, but the service volume has not been sufficient to meet actual needs. After many testers submitted samples for the third epidemic, they waited for many days without results. The government later Explain that because of the huge amount of service, there is no SMS notification to the negative person.

Although the authorities later changed their practices and chose self-paid testers at the community test center, the results would be received within 24 hours. However, the government recently required employees in many industries to test, which caused a bottleneck in the service volume, and the results were not available for many days. The sample bottle is even worse. The Hong Kong 01 reporter recently tested it and submitted it to the HA clinic. It took four and a half days to receive the result. Some people even got it a week.

2. Several false positives

In addition to the substandard testing volume, the performance of testing companies has also been criticized repeatedly.

Golden Mile Inspection (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. is a government-approved testing agency. As early as November 11 and 12 last year, samples of 4 taxi drivers and 1 rehabilitation bus driver were initially positive for the new crown virus, but 5 people arrived. After re-sampling at the public hospital, it was found that only one taxi driver was recruited. The other four were free from the infection and no antibodies to the virus in their bodies.

Xu Shuchang, a government expert consultant and chair professor of the Department of Respiratory System of the School of Medicine of CUHK, estimated at that time that the samples were contaminated in the laboratory.

3. Disturb the contact information of 3000 testing citizens

By mid-November, Jinyu, as the contractor of the Hospital Authority, had disrupted the contact information of nearly 3,000 citizens tested, misrepresenting a negative result text message containing the first 4 digits of the ID card number of others; and sent another 6 positive patients. The negative result, but fortunately, the patient’s stay in the community continued to spread. The HA also apologized for the incident at that time, but at the same time renewed the contract with Golden Mile.

▼The epidemic has repeated social distancing measures for a week starting from March 4▼

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Four. People who have been diagnosed

On December 6, the Department of Health stated that a high-risk group of citizens tested positive at Henry Leung’s Yau Ma Tei Community Center, but found that he had not uploaded his personal information to the government’s computer system, so that he could not be contacted. The incident revealed that he was suspected of being tested. The staff of the center failed to upload personal information of citizens according to the procedures.

The center is undertaken by Golden Mile.

V. Data of non-registered testers

In the middle of the same month, 531 taxi drivers who needed to be tested were unable to receive the results because the staff of the Kwun Tong Ferry Terminal Testing Center did not register their driver information on the government website.

The testing center is also undertaken by Golden Mile.

6. The laboratory environment is polluted

On March 8, the Hospital Authority issued a paper stating that the laboratory environment of the outsourced contractor was contaminated and needed time for cleaning and disinfection. From March 3rd and 4th, 20,000 samples remained unprocessed and needed to be urgently transferred to other contractors. The supplier assists in the laboratory test.

It is reported that the contaminated laboratory is also owned by Golden Mile.

Some people in the industry estimate that laboratory contamination incidents may occur in a post-amplification step.

According to the industry insider, the laboratory needs to continuously replicate the nucleic acid of the virus in order to be easily detected. This step is "amplification", and then it will detect the presence or absence of amplified products. If there are products floating during the detection process In the air, aerosol pollution may be caused. "Even if a small amount is fastened, it will be polluted." The person bluntly said that it is unknown why the leak occurred, but it is possible that the laboratory may reveal the incident after the test results are unstable.

This person believes that the testing company may need to clean the entire laboratory to ensure that there will be no leaked gene segments.

7. Delay in notifying 6000 citizens of test results

On the evening of March 9th, the Food and Health Bureau also announced that about 6,000 citizens who were tested at the Leong Hin Lee Yau Ma Tei Community Testing Center on March 3 have not received negative test results. After investigation, it was found that the contractor Golden Mile had uploaded the test results. During the period, a technical problem was encountered, and the situation was resolved only two days later.

▼Union Hospital staff go to the mobile sampling station for testing▼

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Eight. 16 false positives, employees suspected of deliberately sabotaging samples

Another test of Shanghua University's gene also broke out a "false positive" event in mid-February this year. 16 samples were initially positive, but all of them were negative after review by the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority.

The Food and Health Bureau issued a warning letter to BGI, threatening to consider terminating the relevant contract if the situation is not improved.

The police then arrested a 24-year-old male laboratory worker at BGI and found that he deliberately shook the vessel containing deep throat saliva samples in the virus laboratory three times, involving damage to the deep throat saliva samples and affecting the test results.

Nine. Wrong tester's sample bottle number

On March 7, the Hospital Authority announced that the outsourced contractor had mishandled the sample bottle numbers, causing 103 citizens to receive SMS messages with incorrect sample bottle numbers. As a result, the citizens concerned could not log in to the government’s electronic test records. The system downloads inspection records.

It is understood that the contractor is BGI.

10. Detection is lagging, and citizens wait for a week without results

At the end of February, another testing company, Prenetics, made a mistake and failed to complete the test of samples received by the HA outpatient clinic within 48 hours. Some people waited for more than a week and still had no results, and some confirmed patients waited for many days without test results. , And then seek medical advice on his own to confirm the diagnosis, but the condition has deteriorated to critical condition.

Although there have been many accidents involving testing contractors, especially Golden Mile Testing, which accounts for the most, the government has never punished these laboratories.

On the evening of March 9th, when the Food and Health Bureau responded to the latest incident of Golden Mile, it only stated that "the same situation recurs, and the Food and Health Bureau will take further follow-up actions in accordance with the contract." At present, it is only instructing the contractor to investigate carefully. And submit reports and make improvements; and temporarily suspended the appointment of the service contractor to be responsible for the new mobile sampling station.

New crown pneumonia｜Goldenfield inspection error again 531 taxi drivers have not been registered

Jinyu has frequent errors in testing and will host the third community testing center. The government has no accountability and no termination

New crown pneumonia｜Goldenfield Inspection Suspected of Two Errors This Month Renewed Contract for 3 Months by the Hospital Authority

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