A research group consisting of Professor Masahiro Sonou and Takamichi Kamibayashi, a clinical assistant at the Faculty of Medicine of Teikyo University, investigated the cause of successful containment of the new coronavirus using public data in a joint research with Sapporo Medical University, Gifu University, and Osaka Medical University. , The main cause was social distance, and it was found that the influence of widespread PCR testing was small.
As of May 5, the research group found that 16 countries with more than 1,000 infected people were successfully contained by dividing the latest number of new corona infections that occurred in a week by the highest ever, and the population population. We investigated the correlation between the PCR test rate and the per capita gross domestic product (GDP).
According to it, the success of containment was significantly correlated with the inspection rate and GDP, but the degree of success of containment could be explained only by GDP.Looking at the three Southeast Asian countries of Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, the lower the inspection rate, the more successful the containment.
Japan is often pointed out as having a low inspection rate of 0.19%, but compared to Western countries with an inspection rate of 2 to 7%, the degree of containment is comparable to France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, and the United States. The situation was better than in the UK and Sweden.
Iceland, which has the highest inspection rate in the world, has the highest degree of containment in the world, but UAE and Bahrain, which have the second and third highest inspection rates, have not succeeded in containment.
The research group needs to establish a system that can promptly carry out PCR tests when doctors deem it necessary, but it is basically no problem with the current policy of Japan.
Paper information:[Public Health] Correlation between PCR Examination Rate among the Population and the Containment of Pandemic of COVID-19
