TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Many Taiwanese hope the government will implement general population screening, or allow people to pay for tests themselves, so as to more effectively contain the virus, according to a CNA report on Sunday (March. 21).

South Korea, for example, does general screening and allows citizens to take tests at their own expense. However, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) fears that false negative reports might become a gap in the government’s efforts to contain the virus, according to the report.

Taiwan health minister and CECC chief Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) has repeatedly said that Taiwan would not follow South Korea in implementing general screening, especially when the spread of the virus in Taiwan is still relatively contained. He said general screening or paid screening will produce false negatives, which is not only bad for virus prevention but can also become a gap in virus containment.

Citing the example of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, he said many passengers tested positive in the initial screenings conducted by the Japanese government. Therefore, Japan decided to test all passengers on board the ship.

However, some passengers had false negative results because the viral loads in their body were low at the time of testing, Cheng said. These passengers became vectors but walked around thinking they were safe, resulting in nearly 20 percent of all passengers on board being infected.

Taiwan only administers tests to people who have come into contact with infected cases, those who have a fever or respiratory symptoms, those suspected by doctors of having contracted the disease, or pneumonia cases, the report said.

Those who test negative for pneumonia can go home and conduct self-health monitoring before the test results come out. During this time, they are not permitted to go out.

If the test is negative, then they continue to self-monitor, according to the report. For those who test positive, they will be isolated for treatment.