(REUTERS): In order to make sure that no potential carrier of the novel coronavirus goes amiss, China has started collecting samples for the COVID-19 test from the anus.
According to details, some Chinese cities are using samples taken from the anus to detect potential COVID-19 infections. The country has rolled out the anal swab tests for key groups, focusing on persons returning from abroad and living in high-risk areas.
A city official informed that a throat swab on a 52-year-old man showed negative result after the person showed symptoms such as coughing and appetite loss, but he tested positive using nose and anal swabs.
The person, who had been put in a centralised facility for medical observation as a close contact of another carrier earlier this month, was then confirmed as a COVID-19 patient.
Health experts claimed that taking an anal swab can increase the accuracy in detection of the virus, as according to studies the virus survives longer in the anus or excrement than in samples taken from the upper body tracts.
Anal swabs require inserting a cotton swab 3 to 5 centimetres (1.2 to 2.0 inch) into the anus and gently rotating it. Last week, a Beijing city official said that anal swabs were taken from over 1,000 teachers, staffers and students at a primary school in the city after an infection had been found.
Stool tests may be more effective than respiratory tests in identifying COVID-19 infections in children and infants since they carry a higher viral load in their stool than adults, researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) had said in a paper published last year.
