Why is there a large number of asymptomatic infections in Shanghai? Zhang Boli gives 3 reasons, which are worthy of vigilance

At present, the number of newly confirmed cases in the world has rebounded for the second consecutive week. The number of new local infections in my country is still at a high level, and the scope of the affected cities continues to expand. The epidemic is still in the developing stage. According to the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission’s report on March 29: From 0 to 24:00 on March 28, there were 96 new local confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia and 4,381 asymptomatic infections in Shanghai.

For the phenomenon of the sharp increase of asymptomatic infections in Shanghai, Zhang Boli, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, gave 3 reasons. Zhang Boli explained on the 28th that the first is related to the characteristics of the Omicron variant. “The infectivity of the new coronavirus variant is enhanced, and extremes will reverse, and its toxicity is relatively weakened.” Zhang Boli explained that the clinical manifestation of the weakened virus toxicity is that the clinical symptoms will be lighter, and many infected people do not show clinical symptoms for a short time after infection.

The second is to promote its nucleic acid to turn negative as soon as possible. Zhang Boli said, “After the outbreak of the epidemic, extensive screening was carried out in various places. Due to early detection, many patients did not show symptoms of infection in the early stage of infection.” With the strengthening of early detection capabilities in various parts of my country, the goal of nucleic acid testing in my country is to Complete the nucleic acid detection task of the demarcated area within 24 hours. The latest deployment of nucleic acid screening has enabled all parts of my country to detect infected persons as early as possible in a shorter period of time and control the source of infection. Therefore, compared with the past when they were found in sentinel medical institutions due to fever and dry cough, many infected people were found much earlier.

Third, Chinese residents have been vaccinated on a large scale, and the immunity of the population has generally been enhanced, so most of them are asymptomatic. Zhang Boli analyzed that asymptomatic infections are easy to cause the hidden spread of the virus, and many people were infected when they were discovered.

In this regard, Zhang Boli said that fast and strict flow regulation traceability must be carried out, and the key It is fast, early detection and early isolation. Zhang Boli said, “The epidemic caused by this round of Omicron has been hidden for a period of time, and there are multiple routes of infection. Therefore, the work of circulation is difficult and complicated, and it needs to be more rigorous and careful, not only to pay attention to the close contact, sub-close contact, and general contact of cases. It is necessary to consider whether there is a transmission chain in the early stage of the case, and try to find asymptomatic infected persons as much as possible.” Zhang Boli emphasized that only by finding all asymptomatic infected persons in the shortest time and completely blocking community transmission can the social face be cleared as soon as possible.