Today is the first day of returning to work after the Ching Ming holiday. We swiped news and Weibo, and our eyes were full of news about the epidemic. It seems that this round of epidemics is different from the local epidemics in the past two years, and it continues to infect more for longer.
You feel right. At the press conference of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council held today, the spokesperson of the National Health Commission made the following judgment: Currently, the number of new local confirmed cases and asymptomatic growth in the country is growing rapidly.
Lei Zhenglong, deputy director of the National Health Commission’s Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention, also introduced that From March 1 to April 5, a total of 176,455 local infections were reported nationwide, affecting 29 province. Among them, Guangdong, Shandong, Hebei, etc. are all showing a positive trend, but the epidemic situation in Shanghai and Jilin is still developing. The epidemic situation in Shanghai is at its peak, with more than 90,000 reported cases of infection. There has been a lot of community transmission, and it has spilled over to many provinces and cities. The prevention and control situation is very serious. Jilin Province has reported more than 60,000 cases of infection.
Photo source: Weibo@CCTV News
In this news briefing, three terms related to the diagnosis of the new crown appeared: confirmed, asymptomatic, and infected. Maybe you don’t fully understand the difference. Today’s hot discussion today will talk about the meaning behind them.
What are COVID-19 infection, confirmed diagnosis, and asymptomatic?
The standard name for the new coronavirus that has ravaged the planet for more than two years is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The infectious disease caused by the new coronavirus infecting humans is COVID-19. Everyone who is infected with the new coronavirus is the infected person in the news bulletin.
The diagnosis mentioned in other countries is the new crown virus infection. As long as the nucleic acid test result is positive, it is considered to be infected with the new crown virus, that is, it is considered to be COVID-19. The number of confirmed cases in the United States that we have seen in the media are counted infections. There are currently 494 million people infected with the new coronavirus worldwide.
In China, people infected with the new coronavirus have been subdivided. According to the requirements of the new coronavirus pneumonia prevention and control plan, infected persons with positive nucleic acid tests need to be evaluated for clinical manifestations and lung CT. If the infected person has no symptoms such as fever, dry cough, fatigue, sore throat, decreased sense of smell (taste), diarrhea, and no imaging features of pneumonia are found by CT examination, it is an asymptomatic infection.
Conversely, if an infected person has relevant symptoms or special CT imaging, it is considered a confirmed case of new coronary pneumonia.
An infected person with positive nucleic acid is either asymptomatic or a confirmed case.
For example, among the more than 90,000 infected people in Shanghai, only more than 3,000 are classified as confirmed cases, and the vast majority are asymptomatic infections.
The significance of distinguishing asymptomatic infections
Asymptomatic infected people are also infected with the new coronavirus, which does not mean that there is no risk of spreading the virus. And asymptomatic infections may just be asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis, and subsequent symptoms can appear and become confirmed cases.
Differentiating the asymptomatic and assessing the severity of confirmed cases is for better triage.
The new coronavirus pneumonia diagnosis and treatment plan stipulates that asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients with mild new coronary pneumonia can implement centralized isolation management. During the isolation management period, symptomatic treatment and condition monitoring should be done. If the condition worsens, it should be transferred to a designated hospital for treatment.
Recent changes in the epidemic from statistics
We can learn from the epidemic report that the vast majority of recent infected people are asymptomatic, especially in Shanghai.
The epidemic of the new coronavirus Omicron, on the one hand, is more contagious, making it more difficult for us to fight the epidemic, and on the other hand, it is less virulent, and the threat to infected people has become smaller.
Keeping pace with the times, our epidemic prevention policies are constantly being adjusted in line with these changes, including centralized isolation of asymptomatic and mild cases, and full liberalization of virus antigen self-tests. In the future, I hope that the adjustment will be more scientific and strive for epidemic control at the lowest social cost.
Each of us should also abide by the social epidemic prevention requirements, and don’t miss the new crown vaccine that can be vaccinated. Protect yourself and your family as much as possible.
National Support for Shanghai
Today, Shanghai remains the epicentre of the outbreak that deserves attention. The number of newly infected people is the most, and the epidemic has spilled over to the most relevant areas. Defending Shanghai will be the key to the future fight against the epidemic.
15 provinces, 38,000 medical workers have begun supporting Shanghai. Follow-up support will be deployed if necessary.
Hubei Aid Shanghai Medical Team prepares to enter Shanghai cabin
Photo source: Xinhua News Agency
There is no spring that will not come. It is you and me who make spring come. It is the efforts of every ordinary person.
The latest and hottest medical topics, today’s hot discussion for you to interpret
Planning
Planning: Eric | Producer: Feidi
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