Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of Guangzhou Square Cabin Hospital
What kind of patients are admitted to Guangzhou Square Cabin Hospital?
1. Asymptomatic infected patients
2. Some mildly infected patients
What are the criteria for discharge from Guangzhou Square Cabin Hospital?
1. 7 days of isolation in the hospital
2. Nasopharyngeal swab nucleic acid test on each of the 6th and 7th days of the period
3. Sampling at least 24 hours apart
4. Negative results or Ct value ≥35
People who are discharged from the cabin need to be in isolation in the cabin for 7 days, and complete two consecutive negative nucleic acid tests, and The two sampling time interval of 24 hours, combined with the doctor's comprehensive judgment, to ensure that the out of the cabin people do not have the spread of sex, can be out of the cabin.
Is the outgoing crew still contagious?
The infectiousness of a newly infected person can be determined by the Ct value of the nucleic acid test.
New crown virus nucleic acid molecular weight is very small, need to go through its continuous replication, in order to reach the amount of the instrument can be detected; the so-called Ct value, its complete name for CycleThresholdValue, the Chinese translation for the cycle number of threshold, can be simply understood as the number of times of replication of the nucleic acid. the lower the value of the Ct value, on behalf of the viral nucleic acid undergoes fewer replications can be detected by the instrument, indicating that the concentration of the virus is higher. The lower the Ct value, the fewer replications the viral nucleic acid undergoes before it is detected by the instrument, indicating that the higher the viral concentration, the more infectious it is; conversely, the higher the Ct value, the lower the viral concentration, the less infectious it is.
According to the current regulations, out of the cabin personnel need to be in the square cabin isolation for 7 days, no new crown pneumonia related symptoms, and complete the two intervals of more than 24 hours between the nucleic acid, the test results are negative or Ct value is greater than 35, will be arranged to get out of the cabin. The preponderance of evidence suggests that such recovered individuals have become largely noninfectious.
Does a person who leaves the module get back positive?
To talk about this, it's important to first figure out what is meant by re-positive.
The new version of the treatment program uses a Ct value greater than or equal to 35 as one of the requirements for discharge from hospitals and pods, but during community nucleic acid screening, in order to avoid missing new crown infections in the community, the Ct value standard will be raised to 40.This brings a special interval, that is, the Ct value is greater than or equal to 35 and less than 40 people, especially those who are discharged from hospitals and pods of the rehabilitated people, who may be detected in the community screening for a certain period of time. This is what many members of the public understand as a "double positive".
In fact, such people are not infectious. In order to reduce the community nucleic acid screening false alarms, the relevant provisions of the Guangzhou requirements of the hospital, discharged from the cabin in the home health testing on the fourth day, the seventh day to accept the door "a single collection of a single test," and in the three months do not participate in the community nucleic acid screening.
Are there any cases where the Ct value is less than 35 again after discharge?
Yes, and such cases are not uncommon, but in fact, most of the repositively positive people are "nucleic acid positive" rather than "virus positive", their body residual is some viral nucleic acid fragments; from an epidemiological point of view, only those who carry live viruses can constitute a potential risk of transmission. From an epidemiologic point of view, only infected persons carrying live virus can pose a potential risk of transmission.
This topic has received a lot of attention in the medical community.On July 26, a study completed by the Tang Xiaoping/Li Feng team at the City 8 Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University and Academician Zhong Nanshan's team at the Guangzhou National Laboratory, in conjunction with the Li Yan/Ke Changwen team at the Guangdong CDC and Lu Hongzhou's team at the Shenzhen Third People's Hospital***, and published in National Review of Science, showed that newly-crowned infected people are unlikely to transmit the virus after returning positive and are safe for the community.
The researchers failed in their attempts to grow live neocoronavirus from 25 upper respiratory tract samples from repositively positive people by cell culture. One of the samples with the highest viral load had a Ct value of 25, but still no live virus was found.
In a real-world epidemiologic investigation, the researchers found 23 cases of repositive-positive individuals who had been in close contact with 259 people in the community, but never triggered a single incident of community transmission.
Does repositive positivity have an impact on the health of the recovered person themselves?
The study also evaluated the possible health effects of repositive testing, and found that those who recovered had a favorable trend toward recovery, despite having residual viral RNA in their bodies. Of the 289 cases, only 16 experienced mild coughing, throat irritation, or fatigue, suggesting that the viral RNA reactivation did not aggravate clinical symptoms and that the reactivated individuals did not need to be hospitalized.
Can recovered patients get a second infection?
Recovered patients are resistant to the virus and will not be re-infected with the same strain of the virus for a short period of time.
But it's important to note that, on the one hand, antibody levels in recovered patients will gradually decline over several months after infection; on the other hand, the virus is constantly mutating, and there may be an immune escape between strains of the virus, meaning that antibodies to one strain of the virus may not necessarily be effective against another strain. Therefore, recovering patients should still pay attention to good personal protection.
Why do I need to wear a mask in the hatch? Can there be cross-contamination in a square pod?
At the moment, all of the patients admitted to the hatch are positive for nucleic acid and have the same strain of the virus. As mentioned earlier, there is no risk of secondary infection within a short period of time for the same strain of virus, so there is no risk of cross-infection in the pods.
But because of the high density of people in the pods, to prevent other infectious and contagious diseases, infected people in the pods should also be careful to change their medical masks regularly, practice good personal hygiene, and avoid close contact as much as possible.
Does the new crown pneumonia have sequelae?
The sequelae are medically defined. Some patients with infectious diseases are considered to have sequelae only if the function of certain organs fails to return to normal for a long time after the recovery period is over.
We have observed in our practice that some patients may have prolonged clinical manifestations, such as loss of taste and smell, arthralgia, memory loss, chest pain, cough, etc. Some scholars refer to these as "long new crowns," but they may not necessarily be categorized as sequelae of new crowns of pneumonia.
Currently, our understanding of the new coronavirus is not deep enough, and the observation time of recovered patients is not long enough. Therefore, there are still different scientific views on whether and what kind of sequelae of neocoronavirus pneumonia, and further clinical confirmation is still needed. At present, the academic community has not confirmed that the new crown pneumonia has sequelae.
What about the construction of hospital beds and isolation cubicle beds in Guangzhou Square Pod?
As of Nov. 22, 2022, Guangzhou has opened 19 square-cabin hospitals, and as of the 22nd, nearly 70,000 beds were open in Guangzhou's square-cabin hospitals for asymptomatic infected people and light patients, and a total of 11,000 people have been discharged.
How is life in a square-cabin hospital?
Square cabin hospital beds are basically realized:
Wireless network full coverage
Equipped with basic furniture, electrical appliances, living supplies
Provide 24-hour living and medical support services
What do I have to do to prepare for going to the square cabin?
What preparations should I make if I receive a notice of quarantine in the square cabin?
Kuang Yukun, captain of the Zhongshan First Hospital Supporting Square Cabin Hospital and deputy chief physician of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at Zhongshan First Hospital, suggests:
You can prepare some simple personal items, such as shoes, socks, a change of clothes, and common toiletries.
It's also a good idea to bring a smartphone, which will help with arrangements such as follow-up management and discharge.
If you have time to spare, you can also bring some books and small recreational equipment.
What are the mental health protections?
1, face up to and accept negative emotions
2, regular and quantitative access to authoritative information, to avoid information overload
3, pay attention to improve the immunity of the "three treasures": a reasonable diet, adequate sleep, appropriate exercise
4, the establishment of social support systems:
Establish a good family environment and work environment
Can seek the support and help of relevant organizations and institutions in the community
Guangzhou City, the new crown pneumonia epidemic prevention and control of psychological counselling hotline: 020-81899120 or 020-12320-5, which provides 24-hour free psychological counselling services to the public.