Public health experts and medical specialists yesterday debated whether conducting mass testing for COVID-19 on all travelers arriving in Taiwan is needed to bolster prevention efforts against SARS-CoV-2, and there seemed to be some agreement that it was not needed for the general public at this time.
The topic has become subject of heated public debate after an asymptomatic teenager under quarantine in Changhua County tested positive for COVID-19, highlighting the practice of the Changhua County Public Health Bureau to test the hundreds of people in the county under 14-day home quarantine after returning to Taiwan even if they had no COVID-19 symptoms.
The move appears to contravene the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) quarantine policy, which does not allow people under quarantine to leave the place they are isolating, and for people to be tested only if they report symptoms.
Photo: AFP
The CECC last week ordered an investigation into why and how the Changhua bureau has been running its testing program.
A conference was held in Taipei yesterday by the Taiwan Society of Microbiology, the Taiwan Society of Clinical Pathologists and the Society of Taiwan Long-Term Care Infection Prevention and Control, to discuss the pros and cons of mass testing.
The highly contagious nature of SARS-CoV-2 has been shown by the fact that more than 23 million people have been infected and more than 800,000 people have died, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who also serves as the CECC’s spokesman.
Having rapid and accurate testing is a key factor in containing the virus, so the CDC developed COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test methods early on in the outbreak, and Taiwan’s testing capacity has been expanded to more than 65 healthcare facilities nationwide and more than 7,400 tests per day, he said.
The testing numbers would continue to grow, he said.
Tony Chen (陳秀熙), vice dean of National Taiwan University’s (NTU) College of Public Health, said an important point of testing is detecting asymptomatic carriers, but he is not in favor of conducting “mass testing” on the general public, but only on travelers arriving from high-risk countries.
Conducting continuous COVID-19 antibody testing could be an effective method of understanding the past infections, as it would allow the government to understand local infections and community spread, the nation’s herd immunity, and to detect asymptomatic carriers, Chen said.
Such a program would also help in the development of vaccines, he said.
Several nations, including Singapore, the US, the UK, Spain and Iceland, have been conducting antibody testing and surveillance, which can help them understand the neutralizing antibody response in patients with mild symptoms and those with serious complications, and accelerate vaccine development, he added.
There is an urgent need for COVID-19 antibody testing, as no one yet knows how long antibody immunity can last, he said.
Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎), a physician at NTU Hospital’s division of pediatric infectious disease and a member of the CECC’s expert advisory panel, said mass testing could include testing all travelers arriving in Taiwan, and PRC testing and antibody testing on the general public.
However, it was important to remember that while many people cite Iceland as an example of a nation with a mass testing policy, only about 10 percent of its population has been tested for COVID-19, and as it loosened its border control policies after expanding its testing program, the number of local infections began to increase, Lee said.
For Taiwan, the cost of conducting mass PCR testing is too high, while its benefit might be close to none, given that there have been no reports of local infections for a long time, he said.
Another factor is that mass testing on the general public could result in many false-positive returns, which could cause public panic, he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and