Convoys arriving at the 2nd Prison in North Gyeongsang Province (Cheongsong = Yonhap News) Reporter Hyun-Tae Kim = On the afternoon of the 28th, convoys carrying new coronavirus infections (Corona 19) confirmed in the Seoul Eastern Detention Center arrived at the 2nd Prison in Jinbo-myeon, Jinbo-myeon, Cheongsong-gun, Gyeongbuk. have. 2020.12.28 [email protected] (End) 〈Copyright (c) Yonhap News, Unauthorized Reprint-Redistribution Prohibited〉
About half of the 155 confirmed patients in Seoul’s Eastern Detention Center were transferred to the North Gyeongsangbuk-do Second Prison (formerly Cheongsong Prison) 10 days after they were diagnosed negatively, causing controversy. The Ministry of Justice was unable to explain the cause of whether the confirmed cases of Cheongsong were healed by themselves or whether there was an error in the test.
Ministry of Justice “I don’t know if it’s natural healing or test error”
Experts “unusual cases of healing a large number of short-term,
Errors may occur when samples are collected by untrained persons”
The Ministry of Justice announced the results of a total inspection of 33 correctional facilities nationwide (December 30 to January 6) on the evening of the 7th and re-examined all confirmed prisoners of North Gyeongsangbuk-do 2nd prison (341 persons) transferred from the eastern detention center on the 28th of last month. As a result, 155 people were tested negative.” It means that the test result of 45.5% of confirmed patients at Dongbu detention center transferred to Cheongsong changed from positive to negative within 10 days.
The trend of corona 19 confirmed cases in the eastern detention center in Seoul. Graphic = Reporter Park Kyung-min [email protected]
An official from the Ministry of Justice said in a phone call with the JoongAng Ilbo, “I don’t know if it has healed spontaneously or if the test was wrong from the beginning.” “All in the eastern detention center or after transfer to Cheongsong, not rapid antigen test, but highly accurate PCR ) I did the test.”
The Ministry of Justice was also unable to determine the exact cause of the sudden decrease in the number of confirmed cases from Dongbu detention center, which had soared to 1173 by the morning of the day, by 155 only the patients transferred to Cheongsong. The Central Defense Response Headquarters said that the cumulative number of confirmed cases related to the eastern detention center as of 0 o’clock on the day was 1173, an increase of 79 from the previous day.
Experts pointed out that there is a possibility of natural healing because 70-80% of corona19 confirmed patients are mildly or asymptomatic and heal without treatment, but there is also a possibility of test error because many people turned negative in a short period of time.
“It is an unusual case that half of the confirmed cases became negative in just 10 days,” said Um Joong-sik, a professor of infectious medicine at Gachon University Gil Hospital. He said, “”You need to look at the results of the epidemiologic investigation or the PCR test to know that it is accurate, but if a person who has not been trained to collect samples is tested, the results may be wrong.”
This means that both the possibility that a false positive was found primarily at the Dongbu detention center, which had been tested six times every few days starting on December 18, and that a false negative was obtained from the second test conducted in Cheongsong.
Reporters Esther and Kang Kwang-woo [email protected]