The coronavirus pandemic will have an important change in the near future. This is because during this week rapid testing will begin for all patients with mild symptoms. So new cases of COVID-19 will be detected among the population, considerably increasing the current statistics. “The number of positives will increase substantially,” explained the director of the Center for Coordination of Alerts and Health Emergencies (CCAES), Fernando Simón.
At present, the data currently available do not accurately reflect the real impact of the coronavirus in Spain. The latest official figure is 35,212 cases, although experts say that the magnitude of this pandemic can be seen, in the absence of tests, in hospitals, especially in ICUs.
Fortunately, with these new tests it will be possible to detect, treat and isolate patients in order to know the real degree of progression of the virus. For the time being, the Government has managed to bring 640,000 tests from South Korea and China, which will be distributed equally among the different autonomous communities. Of course, the first tests will be aimed at doctors and elderly people living in nursing homes. However, the government has ordered a further six million in order to be able to extend the diagnosis to other sectors of the population.
In this regard, WHO continues to emphasize the need to test the population in order to curb COVID-19. Only in this way will it be possible to halt the advance of the virus. In Madrid, 85% of the patients tested were positive, because only people with clear symptoms were tested. This also meant that the new cases detected were serious and had to be admitted, while the real extent is unknown because the milder cases could not be diagnosed.
All these admitted patients will have to remain in hospital for several days, even weeks. It can take up to three weeks from the onset of symptoms until the person dies or recovers in hospital.
The tests that were currently being performed were polymerase chain reaction tests, also known as PCR. These tests allowed the detection of diseases through a small amount of DNA collected from the nose or throat of patients. However, this technique requires time and logistics that are currently unfeasible, as the healthcare system is completely overwhelmed. It is not yet known what the new method consists of, although Simón himself has stated that the CCAES will diagnose false negatives and positives and that they must evaluate them before putting them into circulation.
In other countries serological tests have been implemented, which give much earlier results, but are less accurate. The problem with this inaccuracy is that it complicates drastic decisions to help curb COVID-19. The new tests are intended to separate patients in time, since they take only a few minutes, as opposed to the several hours that were required with PCR tests. Later on, Simon says that serological tests will be recommended to show whether a person has antibodies, i.e. it will be possible to know whether the disease has passed. Health circumstances have prompted the search for other methods, as due to the global pandemic the availability of the reagents needed to perform the tests is quite scarce.
The tests ordered by the government work like a pregnancy test. Depending on the amount of antigen, bands appear with a more intense or faded color. When the color is faint, it means that the viral load is not very significant and, therefore, that the result is doubtful. In these cases, the test can be repeated after 24 hours or a PCR can be performed to obtain a truly reliable result.
Although the ideal would be to be able to perform the new test on all Spaniards, it is clear that it will not be possible to test 47 million people. Ideally, however, they can save work for healthcare professionals and help to separate the positives from the healthy.