November the 16th, 2020 – As new measures are proposed for us in the Croatian capital of Zagreb and mass coronavirus testing is prepared for, what can we expect? A lockdown isn’t on the horizon despite the concerning rise in the number of new lab confirmed infections, so what might be?
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a meeting was held recently here in the Croatian capital to discuss possible new measures. One of the main proposals of the members of the Zagreb civil protection headquarters was mass coronavirus testing of the citizens of Zagreb with the use of rapid tests in order to detect as many infected people as possible in a short period of time. This is one of the more optimal ways to bring the spiralling epidemic under control, because in this way, without closing the economy and causing further damage in that sense, all infected people and all their contacts can be isolated and the probability of the further spread of the novel coronavirus can be minimised, Jutarnji list writes.
”Based on the analyses we have, we’re assessing the situation. We considered the possibility of more mass coronavirus testing. Validations of antigen tests have been made and procurement has been initiated. The situation is not good,” confirmed the head of the City Health Office, Vjekoslav Jelec. Just how many of Zagreb’s citizens will be tested and in what period that will occur is still being discussed. Since the beginning of October, rapid coronavirus tests have been being used at the Zagreb Clinic for Children’s Diseases (Klaiceva), and so far they have performed 256 tests on 83 patients who had symptoms, as well as 173 asymptomatic people.
Among 83 patients who had at least one symptom of SARS-CoV-2, 13 of them returned a positive result on the rapid test. All of those tested were also sent for testing by the usual, PCR test: in 12 of the 13 positives, an infection was confirmed, and in one tested person, otherwise a clinic employee, the PCR test result was negative.
All negative results returned by the rapid test were also negative when a PCR test was done after. In other words, the rapid test failed on one in 83 people, giving an efficiency of nearly 99 percent in people presenting with coronavirus symptoms.
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