China is now using anal swabs to test people for the coronavirus, a method that experts say is more accurate to detect the COVID-19 virus. China has begun using anal swabs to test those it considers at high risk of contracting COVID-19, state TV reported. However, social media users and travellers squirm over the invasive procedure which doctors say can be more effective in detecting the virus.
In China's capital Beijing, doctors started using the anal swabs as part of a mass testing drive, after a nine-year-old boy tested positive for the virus last week. According to Chinese state media, more than three million residents have been tested since January 17.
China has used anal since last year, but the method is mainly used in quarantine centres due to its inconvenience, according to a Chinese disease control expert.
Anal swabs method "can increase the detection rate of infected people" as traces of the virus linger longer in the anus than in the respiratory tract, Li Tongzeng, a senior doctor from Beijing's You'an Hospital, told CCTV.
Social media users in China took to Weibo, their popular social media platform, to react to this method of detection of COVID, with humour and wit.
Social media reactions
"So lucky I returned to China earlier," one user wrote.
"Low harm, but extreme humiliation," another said, using a laughing emoticon.
Others who had undergone the procedure chimed in with dark humour.
"I've done two anal swabs, every time I did one I had to do a throat swab afterwards - I was so scared the nurse would forget to use a new swab," one Weibo user joked.
CCTV said on Sunday, anal swabs would not be used as widely as other methods, as the technique was 'not convenient'.
In order to keep the virus from spreading, China is imposing stricter requirements on international travelers, with people arriving in China needing to have multiple negative test results and quarantine for at least 14 days in a designated hotel upon arrival.
