Medical experts are calling for life sciences graduates to help with COVID-19 testing to bolster response measures if a second wave of the disease arrives.
Citing a study by researchers in China, the experts said there might be as many asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — as people confirmed to be infected.
Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), who is an epidemiologist, said he does not think it is necessary to test people from all walks of life, but those whose work puts them in frequent contact with others would be a useful group to sample.
Shih Shin-ru (施信如), head of Chang Gung University’s Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections, said that the roughly 30,000 tests administered in Taiwan were conducted on samples from people suspected of carrying the virus.
However, as one case of locally transmitted infection demonstrated, there is a need to expand testing, Shih said.
The person was a Taiwanese with no recent travel history who showed no symptoms for the month after they were estimated to have become infected, she said.
It is possible that many more people have been infected than have been tested, she said, adding that waiting for major symptoms before testing creates loopholes.
People admitted to emergency rooms with breathing problems should also be tested, she said.
“Taiwan staved off the first wave of infections before the Lunar New Year, but now there are infected people returning to Taiwan from abroad,” Chen said.
Many are worried that even those who test negative for the virus or show no symptoms might have been carriers and so there are infected people in communities who are asymptomatic or have only light symptoms, he said.
Convenience store workers, taxi drivers, medical care professionals and others who frequently come into contact with the public would be good candidates, he said.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is spokesman for the Central Epidemic Command Center, said that up to 3,800 people could be tested daily, which is sufficient for current needs, with roughly 500 tests being conducted daily.
Huang Kao-pin (黃高彬), director of pediatric infectious disease at Kaohsiung’s Chang Gung Medical Foundation, said that as the situation in Taiwan has not reached the epidemic proportions seen in the US and Europe, there is no need to test everyone who returns from abroad.
Doing so would waste resources and result in complaints, Huang said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hui-chin, Chien Hui-ju and Su Yung-yao
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