A team of physicians and dentists in Hsinchu City have been hailed as an “exceptional example” for doctors to follow, after they collaborated on running a COVID-19 rapid testing station at the Hsinchu Science Park.
After a cluster of COVID-19 infections was reported at King Yuan Electronics on June 2, Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) voiced concern about the effect on production at the park.
On June 4, the rapid testing station was established and started testing workers in the park the following day.
Photo courtesy of the Hsinchu City Government
Over the next five days, it tested 5,213 people.
Hsinchu City Medical Association chairman Chiu Kuo-hua (邱國華) gathered more than 120 medical professionals, including 76 physicians, 43 dentists and seven traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, to operate the station. Chiu required all to have been vaccinated against the disease at least two weeks prior, and to undergo training in COVID-19 testing.
Chen Chih-cheng (陳志成), who trained the team, said his goal was to prepare them to identify people with latent infections.
Dentists were recruited because of their experience testing for the flu, and because SARS-CoV-2 is most highly concentrated in the nose and throat of an infected person, Chen said.
“We taught the dentists what they needed to know about the structure of the nose and throat, and about collecting samples for COVID-19 tests,” he said. “After they did it a few times they were able to instruct other doctors.”
Chiu recorded the training process he used for the dentists with the hope of it being used as training material for testing stations elsewhere in Taiwan.
“Hopefully, dentists will be seen as a valuable resource in the fight against disease,” he said.
Hsinchu City Dental Association chairman Lan Hung-wen (藍鴻文) said that Hsinchu’s dentists are known to have a good rapport with the city’s physicians, which is why they quickly volunteered to work at the testing station when it was announced.
“For them I think it was this idea that they had to come together to save their city,” he said.
The station also relieved some of the burden on the city’s hospitals, and enabled those who were concerned about going to a hospital out of fear of infection to have another choice for testing, he said.
Hsinchu has also established other rapid testing centers, and is offering to test on-site at factories, Lin said.
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