May 7, 2022
image source,Getty Images
In Shanghai, staff in protective clothing conduct large-scale COVID-19 screening in a community. The city has been under lockdown for more than a month due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Li Yan (pseudonym), who lives in Huangpu District, Shanghai, has been exhausted for the past few days. She tested negative for nucleic acid and antigen many times, and had a positive result during the period. She requested a review to no avail, but was sent to the Fangcang shelter hospital. After getting out of the cabin, he started to get sick.
“I don’t think it’s possible (positive),” Li Yan told the BBC Chinese.
Like many Shanghai residents, she has been staying at home for more than a month since the community was closed on April 1, only going downstairs when large-scale nucleic acid screening and group purchases arrive.
After seeing the positive result on April 29 (sampled on April 28), she hurriedly tested her antigen several times that day, and “all were one bar” (meaning negative). On the same day, she was also tested in the official large-scale nucleic acid screening as required, and the result was still negative the next day.
Will the occasional positive be a false positive? Or detected a problem? Or was it previously infected and later recovered? Li Yan wanted to review the positive result, but no one paid attention. Under Shanghai’s strict implementation of the “social zero” policy, she was taken to a makeshift hospital that day.
At present, Shanghai has been closed for more than a month, and many residents have been unable to go out or leave the community for more than a month. The official stressed that the goal of “social zero” must be achieved as soon as possible. Its purpose is to strictly control the invisible transmission chain in society, keeping patients and those who may be at risk of transmission in a controlled state, without considering issues such as economic and social costs. As a result, various departments seem to be trying their best to control the flow of people in order to complete a set target or political task, and conduct compulsory nationwide testing regardless of residents’ work and rest time. As long as the nucleic acid results are positive, they will be sent to the Fangcang shelter hospital for isolation.
image source,Getty Images
A temporary quarantine site at the Shanghai New International Expo Center.
How can I prove that I am not contagious
Li Yan is not alone in having doubts regarding the positive test result. On the social media Weibo, it is not uncommon for people to be sent to the cabin for no reason.
A netizen who signed JAKEBAEK is a resident of Pudong New Area in Shanghai. He posted on May 2 that following he came out of the shelter and returned to the community, he had a nucleic acid test on the seventh day and was notified that the result was Fuyang. He self-tested the antigen many times, and the results showed a bar. He asked for a review, and was told that he might be sent to the hospital to measure the Ct value. However, following she got in the car, she realized that she had been taken to the shelter.
“Why don’t you give me a review, don’t take me to the hospital to measure the Ct value and decide whether to isolate me or not? If I am not infectious or I have a false positive, I am tricked into the cabin and infected once more? Who is responsible? ” wrote the Shanghai resident. Since he didn’t know he was going to the cabin, he didn’t even bring the medicines and clothes he needed every day. Under this post, many people reported experiencing similar experiences.
There is also a family of 5 people in Shanghai who tested positive at the end of March, but might not be admitted due to limited space in the square cabin, and were temporarily isolated at home. Half a month later, 5 people recovered by themselves, and the nucleic acid test was negative. However, at this time, Shanghai has introduced differentiated prevention and control measures at different levels, which are divided into prevention areas, management and control areas, and sealing and control areas according to the degree of risk. As long as it is positive within 7 days, it belongs to the closed control area, and the 7-day closed management is implemented, and residents cannot leave their homes.
So, under the pressure of some people in the community, the family might not stand the pressure and agreed to be transported to the shelter.
“During the period of time we were infected, the government announced a lot of policies, but it did not say that the patients who have been diagnosed, those who were quarantined at home and had no time to transfer, and those who recovered themselves, how can we prove that ‘I have recovered’.” residents inWeChat public accountwrote on.
She also said that among the positive people found in the community at the same time, they were not sent to the shelter because there was no car to pick up or there was not enough space. Many people recovered at home but might not prove that they were not infectious. “If you don’t enter the square cabin, no one will recognize it. If you keep wearing the positive hat, which day will you be a head?”
After arriving at the shelter, Li Yan from Huangpu District also called the CDC in the district several times, hoping to complain regarding her situation, but no one answered. She also asked the medical staff in the cabin for feedback, and the other party told her: “You have already come here, you can go out following testing two negatives.”
“I’m negative, isn’t the probability of infection very high?” Li Yan asked back. There are nearly 500 patients living in the cabin where she lives, and she has to take off her mask in the enclosed space when drinking water and eating.
image source,Li Yan
The red old song “Singing the Motherland” was played in the cabin, attracting many patients to gather for video recording.
“You protect yourself,” the medical staff responded to Li Yan. Apart from that, there were no other measures. At this time, Li Yan only felt that the other party was cold and irresponsible.
The environment in her cabin is relatively good, and there is no shortage of food and basic materials in some cabins. But, “being sent in in an extremely uncertain state was really frightening, and I almost suffocated at night,” she said.
image source,Li Yan
In Li Yan’s cabin, patients can only look for their nucleic acid test reports on the notification bar on the wall.
The controversial Ct value standard
Just one day following Li Yan arrived in the cabin, one of her neighbors said in the community’s social group that his nucleic acid test was positive on April 30, but later the CDC called him, saying that he had made a mistake and that he The Ct value is 39.3.
The full name of Ct value is cycle number threshold, which is a professional term used by professionals to detect the virus content in samples. A simple understanding is that the smaller the Ct value, the more virus content in the sample and the stronger the infectivity. According to China’s latest national standard, as long as the value is greater than or equal to 35, it means there is no risk of infection.
“That is to say, they still use the original standard to test nucleic acid, so how many people are only positive because the value is wrong. It’s scary,” said Li Yan’s neighbor.
Coincidentally, a Shanghai resident with the online name MarowizLILY is currently quarantined in a shelter on Hangjin Road. She posted on Weibo on May 2 for help, hoping to apply for two nucleic acid results to be reviewed and to be discharged from the hospital. She said that her nucleic acid results on April 29 and May 1 were both positive, and the Ct values were 37 and 39.23, respectively.
“What exactly is the standard Ct value for nucleic acid testing? Why is the Ct up to the standard and the result is positive? Why can’t I appeal? Why aren’t the negative patients allowed to go home?” the resident asked.
In fact, as early as March 15 this year, China issued the ninth edition of the notice on the new crown diagnosis and treatment plan. One of the major changes is to clarify that the nucleic acid detection Ct value of the convalescent infected person is greater than or equal to 35 to be discharged or released from isolation. mark. Previously, China has always determined that the standard for a negative nucleic acid test for the new crown is a Ct value greater than 40.
Zhang Wenhong, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, explained that patients with COVID-19 generally can reach a Ct value of 35 following staying in the hospital for regarding 10 days, but it may take several months to reach a value above 35. “It is meaningless in terms of treatment, and it is extremely unreasonable to keep him in the hospital if he is not infectious.”
According to the statements of the above-mentioned residents, there may have been problems in the implementation of this new set of standards, resulting in the fact that the Ct value reached the standard but might not be discharged from the hospital due to a positive nucleic acid result. Some people also questioned whether some CDCs in Shanghai recently raised the Ct value standard in order to achieve the task of clearing the zero.
“If nothing else, I’m the victim of an increase in Ct,” Li Yan speculated. At this point, it was impossible for her to know her Ct value, so she had no choice but to stay in the shelter for a few nights. After three negative nucleic acid tests, she returned home on May 3.
image source,Li Yan
After leaving the cabin, the bad luck was not over yet. The next day, Li Yan tested positive for the antigen.
“It’s humiliating, but it’s not caused by disease”
After returning from the cabin, the bad luck was not over yet, and things were developing in the direction that Li Yan was most worried regarding.
She started to have a low-grade fever in the followingnoon of the day she left the cabin, and the temperature reached 38.5 degrees the next day. When the antigen was self-tested once more, two obvious bars appeared.
“It all makes sense suddenly,” Li Yan suddenly realized. She had no symptoms before going to the cabin, and she tested negative many times. She also tested negative many times in the cabin, but she started to get sick following leaving the cabin. She speculated that she was infected in the cabin to a large extent.
“It feels humiliating, but it’s not caused by the disease,” Li Yan said. “The whole thing is not up to your personal will, and there is no place to complain or reason.”
While in the cabin, Li Yan also found that, unlike the situation outside the cabin, the nucleic acid results of the residents in the cabin might not be found on mobile phones, and they had to be searched one by one on dozens of pages of paper posted on the wall. The paper lists the bed, name, nucleic acid results, the interval between tests, and whether the discharge conditions are met. When the results came out, many residents swarmed up, looking forward to seeing their negative results and getting out of the cabin as soon as possible.
“Isn’t this another risk of gathering people?” Li Yan said with emotion. “I really feel that ordinary people are particularly pitiful and have no dignity at all.”
She also saw people in protective suits playing the red old song “Sing to the Motherland” loudly in the cabin, attracting many patients to gather for video, which made her feel “extremely ridiculous”.
Li Yan now has new concerns. “I’m worried that when I do the nucleic acid test once more, my body will not fully recover. If the result is positive, I may have to go for a walk in the cabin once more. This is what I’m most afraid of now,” she said hoarsely.
