Shenzhen has further optimized the medical treatment procedures at fever clinics (consulting rooms), according to a notice recently issued by the medical treatment group of the city’s COVID-19 prevention and control authority.
Patients with positive antigen or nucleic acid test results at fever clinics will be asked to go home, go to a makeshift or a designated hospital, or stay in the medical institution where they visited to have further treatment based on their health conditions.
At present, all medical institutions in Shenzhen have organized receptionists for triage. Patients whose nucleic acid test results are positive or have fever and respiratory tract symptoms will be guided to fever clinics (consulting rooms).
For patients with positive nucleic acid test results, the medical workers will immediately give them an N95 mask and gloves and arrange them to see a doctor in the fever clinic’s special (isolated) consulting room or ward.
For patients with fever and respiratory tract symptoms, the medical staff will ask them to go to the fever clinic’s general consulting room for an antigen or nucleic acid test.
Based on a patient’s condition, they can immediately leave a hospital after diagnosis and treatment without waiting for nucleic acid test results. If the result is positive, the medical institution will notify the patients for follow-up treatment.
COVID patients who don’t need to be hospitalized and can be treated at home can go home directly without a nucleic acid test.
Those who have COVID-related symptoms but are unable to undergo home quarantine, or asymptomatic and mild infections who voluntarily choose centralized quarantine, are transferred to a makeshift hospital for treatment by their communities.
Moderate, severe and critically ill COVID patients are transferred to a designated hospital by ambulance for treatment. Patients with special diseases requiring hospitalization are treated in the hospital’s corresponding departments according to their nucleic acid test results.
In another development, the clinic laboratory department of Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital has analyzed the possibility of false positive or false negative results in antigen tests.
According to the department’s expert, false positive or false negative results may be caused by the presence of interfering substances in the nasal cavity samples collected.
There may be interfering substances in the samples because of individual physical problems, other microbial infections, or taking certain drugs or special foods.
The most common is that there is a lot of mucus in the nasal cavity of the person being tested. The mucus is not wiped clean when sampling, and the acid substances in the mucus may lead to false positive results.
False positive or false negative results may also be caused during the testing. If the number of drops of the sample exceeds the specified number, it may lead to false positive results, especially in some reagents with high sensitivity.
In addition, the antigen test kit should be used in a timely manner after opening. If it is placed for too long, especially under high temperature and humidity, the results will also be affected.
Residents should also carefully read the instructions before use. Reading the results too late or too early may lead to false positive or false negative results, respectively.
The expert reminds that negative antigen test results don’t necessarily mean that the tested person is not infected. If residents are highly suspicious of a COVID infection, they can take another antigen test or a nucleic acid test for confirmation.