As the scope of nucleic acid testing has been expanded in various places, mildly confirmed cases and asymptomatic infections have been detected one after another, and the key work of epidemic prevention and control is continuing to strengthen.
Xinhua News Agency reported that the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting on March 17 to analyze the situation of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and deploy strict measures to prevent and control the epidemic.
The meeting emphasized that it is necessary to speed up the reform of the disease control system, expand the monitoring coverage of key groups, improve the multi-channel monitoring and early warning mechanism, and comprehensively improve the epidemic monitoring, early warning and emergency response capabilities.
This afternoon (18th), the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the situation of strictly controlling the epidemic prevention and control work. Wang Hesheng, deputy director of the National Health Commission and director of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the press conference that the next step will continue to strengthen the epidemic situation. The key tasks of prevention and control include controlling local clustered epidemics as soon as possible, resolutely defending the "foreign import" defense line, strengthening the normalized epidemic prevention and control management in key places and key areas, and further improving the level of scientific and precise prevention and control.
In view of the characteristics of strong transmission and weak pathogenicity of the Omicron virus, what other efficient early warning mechanisms can play their due role in the present?
Monitoring system needs to be more sensitive
In improving the level of scientific and precise prevention and control, Wang Hesheng said that it is necessary to strictly implement the pre-examination triage and the responsibility system for the first diagnosis, improve the multi-point trigger early warning mechanism, and promote the monitoring model of "antigen screening and nucleic acid diagnosis".
Guide local scientific and precise prevention and control to minimize the impact on economic and social development.
So, how should fever clinics in medical institutions as "sentinels" respond?
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, believes that under the new crown epidemic, a sensitive epidemic monitoring system should be established, and this system requires the participation and cooperation of the masses at the same time.
Wu Zunyou said that, for example, for medical staff in fever clinics, they need to have a stronger sense of responsibility, sensitivity, and care; while for the masses, they need to have a high degree of consciousness. If you have symptoms and suspect that you are infected with the new crown, you still have to take the initiative to remind the medical department, "The two parts of medical staff and patients are very important."
At the press conference this afternoon, Wang Hesheng pointed out that it is necessary to guide key places such as schools, nursing homes, prisons, transportation stations, supermarkets and other crowded places, and employees in cold chain, supermarkets, and logistics to strictly implement epidemic prevention measures.
How should the epidemic prevention monitoring of the above-mentioned key places and key groups be implemented?
Wu Zunyou said that the "key population monitoring" on the one hand includes strengthening the monitoring of overseas input sources (one is a person, the other is a thing), and on the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the monitoring of people engaged in cold chain and outdoor freight. These monitoring can also be further extended to their family members.
These jobs are being deployed everywhere and have been running for a long time.
Jin Dongyan, a professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Hong Kong and an expert in virology, said in an interview with China Business News that "key population monitoring" also includes gathering places such as schools and prisons, as well as airport cleaning and transportation that have frequent contact with the outside world. post staff.
Some epidemiological experts also told reporters that in the past, patients with new crowns must go to the fever clinic and undergo nucleic acid testing, but this is for people with inconvenient geographical locations (such as rural areas and suburbs) Most people choose to carry it by themselves. , once the delay is delayed, the opportunity for diagnosis and discovery will be missed, which will cause a local epidemic of new crowns.
To this end, the expert also said that the newly released "New Coronary Virus Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (Trial Ninth Edition)" incorporates the method of antigen testing, and the grassroots medical institutions, as well as the staff of the new crown screening management, and individual residents are all It can be purchased and tested. "This antigen detection method can be used for screening, but it cannot be used for final diagnosis; it also requires doctors to make combined judgments based on the patient's epidemiological history and clinical symptoms."
Reduce super spread infections
At present, what other efficient early warning mechanisms can play a practical role?
"From the perspective of some new methods and concepts, I advocate the prevention or reduction of super-spreader infections." Jin Dongyan told reporters.
Jin Dongyan said that taking the fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong as an example, it actually has four sources of transmission. From the perspective of the fourth source of infection, the initial infected person was infected in the last few days of quarantine in the epidemic prevention hotel. Although his nucleic acid test came back negative when he left the hotel, he passed it on to his family after returning home, who in turn infected a super-spreader.
"On the one hand, it shows that the isolation period is too long, and the quarantined people have defensive fatigue. They may relax their vigilance all of a sudden, and they will be caught unconsciously. On the other hand, it shows the importance of detecting super-spreaders as soon as possible. , preventing it from spreading 10 times or more, which can also better prevent subsequent super spread." Jin Dongyan said.
How to find superspreaders as soon as possible?
Jin Dongyan said that the key is to carry out the application and popularization of antigen detection. It is much more convenient to use the antigen detection method to let everyone test at home, which is much more convenient than nucleic acid detection; and for some high-risk groups, they can be allowed to carry out antigen detection and screening for several days in a row. Cha, "At present, the test in Hong Kong has changed from the initial weekly test to the daily test, and the antigen test has played a good supplementary role."
So, how to establish an early warning monitoring mechanism?
Jin Dongyan said that this still requires early detection and early reporting. "Once a cluster of transmission occurs in any place, it must be reported as soon as possible, and it must be reported when there are a few or a dozen cases at first, and cannot wait until the number of cases rises It’s easy to get out of control when reporting at three digits.”
A number of industry experts told reporters that at this stage, all localities have gradually expanded the scope of "exhaustive inspections", and this epidemic prevention work must not be relaxed. Epidemic prevention work also needs to remain vigilant and stay vigilant to overcome this difficulty together. period.
"It will take about 10 days for the effects of the series of prevention and control measures we have taken today to be reflected in the data. That is to say, although the number of cases is still rising, the fact is that our prevention and control measures are still on the rise. It works." Wu Zunyou said that it is expected that the epidemic will be well controlled in 2 to 3 weeks.