Mass Screening Has Many Negative Results For COVID-19

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JAKARTA - The government is preventing the spread of the corona virus or COVID-19, one of which is by conducting mass screening using the rapid test method. The results of this mass rapid test, most people tested negative.

"We get some positive results, although we find more negative results from this screening examination," said a spokesman for the government for handling the Corona virus or COVID-19, Achmad Yurianto at Graha BNPB, East Jakarta, Monday, March 23.

By finding a lot of negative cases in society, it does not mean that they are completely healthy. This is because the serumology-based rapid test method measures antibody levels in the body when the virus emerges.

This means that the antibodies will be in large numbers if infected with the virus. Meanwhile, the opposite happens if a person is in good health. However, not all viruses will immediately respond to the body by producing antibodies.

Thus, it takes about seven to ten days to confirm an increase in the number of antibodies or not.

Then, the health worker will carry out a second test to make sure the person is infected or not.

"If the results of this second examination are still negative, we can conclude that we are currently not infected. But remember, we do not have the immunity not to be infected," said Yuri.

Meanwhile, for an examination with a positive indication, the officer will immediately take the person to undergo an antigen test or better known as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).

When the results of the second examination remain unchanged or positive, the person will be immediately taken to the emergency hospital as the next step.

"If the examination in this way is positive, it will definitely say that the person concerned is infected. So this is why the government has prepared several facilities to increase the hospital isolation room. The goal is to carry out hospital isolation," said Yuri.