News from the Beijing News (Reporter Wang Kara) On March 11, the National Health and Medical Commission issued an announcement that the State Council’s Comprehensive Team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism for the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic decided to increase the number of antigens on the basis of nucleic acid testing. As a supplement, we organized the formulation of the “New Coronavirus Antigen Detection Application Plan (Trial)”. The “Plan” mentioned that residents who have self-test needs can purchase antigen test reagents for self-test through retail pharmacies, online sales platforms and other channels. This means that the domestic self-testing of new crown antigens at home will be released.
On the evening of March 11, a reporter from the Beijing News asked Yuekang to send people to Ping An Pharmacy (Lincoln Park store), and Yuekang to send people to Ping An Pharmacy ( Many pharmacies such as Xinkang Pharmacy) and Baikang Pharmacy have stated that they have not sold new crown antigen test products. A number of pharmaceutical network platforms also said that they are waiting for further news, and the key depends on when such products are approved.
According to the “Plan”, the applicable population for antigen testing includes those who go to primary medical and health institutions for treatment, have respiratory symptoms, fever and other symptoms and have symptoms within 5 days; quarantine observation personnel , including home isolation observation, close and sub-close contact, entry isolation observation, closed and controlled areas, and personnel in control areas. Community residents who have self-test needs should carefully read the instructions during the self-test after purchasing, and conduct sampling, sample addition, and result interpretation in a standardized manner according to the prescribed requirements and procedures.
The “Plan” also requires that if the antigen test is positive, regardless of whether they have respiratory symptoms, fever and other symptoms, residents should immediately report to their Community (village) reports, the community (village) contact the emergency center to transfer residents to a medical institution with a fever clinic for nucleic acid testing in accordance with the guidelines for the transfer of personnel related to the new coronary pneumonia epidemic. If the antigen test is negative, asymptomatic residents can be closely observed, and then undergo antigen or nucleic acid testing when necessary; symptomatic residents are advised to go to a medical institution with a fever clinic for nucleic acid testing as soon as possible; if it is inconvenient to seek medical treatment, they should stay at home Self-isolate, avoid going out, and take an antigen self-test every day for 5 consecutive days.
“The new crown antigen detection products are roughly divided into POC professional version and home self-test version. As of now, a total of 5 new crown antigen rapid detection POC professional versions have been approved in China The test kit products need to be operated by professionals. The home self-test version products that can be purchased in pharmacies, online sales platforms and other channels have not yet been approved, and the introduction of new policies may accelerate the progress.” On the evening of March 11, Liu Yi, chairman of Jiu’an Medical, said in an interview with a reporter from the Beijing News that as a powerful supplement to nucleic acid testing, antigen testing products are convenient and fast. The release of home self-testing will help early screening of the epidemic and reduce the risk of large-scale transmission. Especially in the face of national nucleic acid testing, the use of nucleic acid testing (diagnosis) + home self-testing (screening) may achieve the effect of 1+1>2 and reduce the medical burden.
Liu Yi said that most of the global home-use self-testing antigen test products come from China. The home self-test market is liberalized, and companies should be able to meet the domestic anti-epidemic needs. “In the case that the policy side has been clarified, Jiu’an Medical will pay close attention to the progress and make preparations in advance in terms of raw materials, products, channels and other aspects. Protecting the home is the most important thing. We will definitely give priority to supporting the domestic anti-epidemic work.”
Proofreading Zhang Yanjun