The ongoing pandemic has undoubtedly prepared the scene for many hilarious situations and decisions. The USA remains the hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 disease that infected over 100 million people across the world and killed more than 2.2 million of them.
China, the country from where the pandemic started, is still reporting several cases of infections with the coronavirus about each day. Therefore, China is still looking for solutions against the virus that’s keeping a whole planet in the alert.
China imposes anal swabs to fight COVID-19
Besides the classical methods such as lockdowns and mass testing, China imposes anal swabs for neutralizing the new outbreaks of COVID-19, according to Bloomberg. The method works by inserting a saline-soaked cotton swab of two-to-three centimetres into the anus and collecting a sample that further gets tested for active traces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, there’s no nationwide policy for using the peculiar technique, but some residents from China’s northern regions were subjected to the swabs while barely being warned.
Jiang Qingwu, who’s a professor of epidemiology from the School of Public Health at Shanghai’s Fudan University, declared:
I don’t understand why Beijing added anal swabs. It’s not like poking the throat. You need a certain place and the risk of such transmission routes is lower,
He also added:
Maybe they want to find remnants? It’s true that the virus can be detected there.
According to Li Tongzeng, the deputy director of the respiratory and infectious disease department from Beijing You An Hospital, using the peculiar technique is based on research showing that traces of the coronavirus found in the anus are lasting longer than in the respiratory tract.
Lu Hongzhou, who’s an infectious disease physician, said it firmly:
We don’t tolerate the virus circulating. Once we find it, we immediately quash it and outbreaks are not allowed.
The best ways to stay away from the COVID-19 disease are the old ones: washing hands, wearing a mask, and maintaining a physical distance.
