As of 16:00 on January 28, the current round of local epidemic in Beijing has reported a total of 84 cases of local infection, of which 6 cases have been reported in the cumulative number of cases associated with the epidemic situation of the Olmi Kerong variant, and no new infections have been reported for 5 consecutive days; and 78 cases of infected people have been reported in the related epidemic situation of the Delta variant. Of the 23 confirmed cases detected earlier in Beijing, 8 had the condition of "taking their own medication and not seeking medical treatment".
In the big network of epidemic prevention and control, pharmacies have always been regarded as "sentinel points".
After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in early 2020, Zhejiang took the lead in the country to carry out the information registration and reporting system for personnel who purchased anti-fever and cough medicines, and shouted out the slogan of "let more than 20,000 pharmacies in the province become the sentinel points for epidemic prevention and control with wide eyes".
"The sentinel role of pharmacies will only strengthen, not weaken." On November 16, 2020, the relevant person in charge of the Zhejiang Provincial Drug Administration said at the 56th press conference on the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in the province.
According to the notice issued by the Beijing Municipal Food and Drug Administration in August 2021, pharmacies are also required to play the role of "frontier sentinels" to assist in epidemiological investigations. Implement a real-name registration system for the purchase of four types of epidemic prevention and control drugs for the treatment of cough, fever, dry throat and anti-infection, and clarify the reporting channels.
However, in the past many rounds of the epidemic, pharmacies do not seem to have played a "whistleblower" role. Taking the current round of epidemic in Beijing as an example, the health community checked the circulation information of confirmed cases and found that since the discovery of a locally confirmed case in Haidian District of Beijing on January 15, as of 16:00 on January 22, 8 of the 23 confirmed cases found earlier in Beijing had "taken their own medication and did not seek medical treatment".
In order to detect infected people in fever populations as soon as possible, many places across the country have asked pharmacies to stop selling drugs for the treatment of fever and cough.
However, the strict "ban on the sale" of cold medicines has triggered the scrambling of cold medicines, which has had an impact on people's livelihood and the market. During the period when the policy is relatively mild, the relevant departments require the purchase of antipyretic and cough drugs, real-name registration, or provide nucleic acid testing certificates.
Since the afternoon of January 23, 2022, Beijing has issued a "new move" - through big data comparison, the implementation of health treasure pop-up prompts for those who purchase "four types of drugs" in pharmacies, urging those who have purchased four types of drugs for antipyretic, cough, anti-infection, and treatment of dry throat within 14 days and in the future to undergo nucleic acid testing within 72 hours. In this way, the health treasure can return to normal.
From the perspective of epidemic prevention and control, this is a remedy. However, the sudden pop-up prompt of the health treasure in the early morning of Monday 24 affected the homecoming Trip, work and daily life of many Beijing residents, and some hospitals and third-party testing points that provide nucleic acid testing services clearly do not accept the health treasure pop-up window personnel, and for a time many people complained, "Buy lozenge is also the health treasure pop-up window."
On January 27, the health community saw two pharmacies in Beijing's Haidian District, each with a QR code for purchasing "Four Types of Drugs" registered. According to the staff, if you buy drugs for symptoms such as fever and cough, you need to scan the code through the "Beijing Health Treasure" to fill in the information. After registration, the health treasure will appear pop-up window. "Go to the nearby community to do a nucleic acid test, and when the results come out, the health treasure can return to normal."
Under the overall situation of epidemic prevention and control in the mainland," how should the sales of four types of drugs, such as cold medicines, be managed?
The "sentinel" failure in multiple rounds of the outbreak
The failure of the "sentinel" function of pharmacies has occurred in many previous rounds of outbreaks.
On February 8, at the beginning of the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, introduced a new crown pneumonia case at a press conference, and after symptoms such as sneezing, he took white and black, disappeared, and did not see a doctor, which later led to the diagnosis of 11 people including family, relatives, and friends.
A man in Ningbo also "accidentally" infected more than a dozen people for the same reason. From January 22 to 25, 2020, he had symptoms of fatigue and cold, so he dispensed cold medicine in the pharmacy on his own, and felt better after taking the drug. Later, it was caused by gathering activities such as door visits and playing mahjong between neighbors.
In October 2021, in the epidemic caused by self-driving tour groups in Beijing, one of the 5-person tour groups had symptoms during the tour, and after returning to Beijing, they repeatedly went to the pharmacy to buy fever reducers and cold medicines. In addition, he later organized 8 people to play mahjong at home twice, and there were a variety of places involved in Beijing, making 1534 close contacts.
More typically, Hebei Province, where the epidemic was most severe in early 2021. By combing the trajectory of the officially announced confirmed cases in Hebei, it was found that 53 of the new locally confirmed cases in Hebei from January 2 to January 15 had been diagnosed to go to pharmacies or clinics to buy drugs, take drugs on their own, and then became confirmed cases after nucleic acid testing.
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"Wartime" cold medicine "ban"
The ban on the sale of cold medicines began in Hubei in early 2020. This is a "wartime" strategy.
"Fever patients don't know if they have the virus, they are unwell and think they have a cold, so they go to the pharmacy to buy medicine, which makes it difficult for the community to verify." According to the response of the relevant person in charge of the Shiyan City New Crown Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters at that time, the removal of cold and cough drugs was to allow patients with cough and fever symptoms to go to the hospital to ensure that all personnel were verified.
On February 9, 2020, when Shiyan City issued a "ban on the sale of cold medicines", it attracted widespread attention. This measure was identified as a feasible method for epidemic prevention and control at that time, and was rapidly promoted.
Subsequently, Huangshi City, Huanggang City, Jingzhou City, Jingmen City, Xianning City, Xiaogan City, Ezhou City, Enshi Prefecture and other places in Hubei Province have successively issued notices, and until the date when the epidemic situation is completely lifted, all pharmacies will suspend the sale of drugs with fever reduction and cough suppression functions on the instructions to the public.
In addition to Hubei, at that time, Sanya City, Hainan Province, Tai'an City, Shandong Province, and other places also issued notices, and all pharmacies in the jurisdiction suspended the sale of medicines for the treatment of fever and cough to the public. Many cities and counties in Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Liaoning and other places have also begun to stop selling or registering in real names to buy various antipyretic drugs and cold medicines. Pharmacies in Chaoyang District and Haidian District of Beijing have also begun to implement the regulations on real-name registration and purchase of fever reducers, cold medicines, and cough medicines, and report relevant information.
Panic caused by the "ban on the sale" of cold medicines
Entering the normalization stage of epidemic prevention and control, the "ban on the sale of cold medicines" has been gradually lifted. Then, as soon as the epidemic situation was tense, a "ban on the sale" of cold medicines was issued, which almost became a routine means.
At the beginning of 2021, the situation changed. On January 9, according to the National Health Commission, there were 69 new cases nationwide. On January 10, there were 103 new confirmed cases nationwide, almost doubling from the previous day, and then for four consecutive days, the number of locally confirmed cases exceeded 100.
Coupled with the lesson that during the epidemic in Hebei, many patients went to pharmacies to buy medicines and take medicines on their own, resulting in the aggravation of the risk of epidemic transmission, and various localities have introduced strict policies to ban the sale of cold medicines.
Mapping of the health community
The news that the sale of cold medicines will be banned soon is widely circulated in the circle of friends.
"Stay rational, don't blindly hoard medicines, don't take medication yourself, avoid delaying treatment, and don't go to the clinic at will." An urgent appeal from the COVID-19 Prevention and Control Headquarters in Lishui City, Zhejiang Province. However, some people are not rational, and there have been queues in many parts of the country to buy cold medicine.
According to some live videos, cold medicine has been swept away from the shelves of pharmacies in many places. Grandpa and Aunt even have a basket on each side of their hands, which are all kinds of cold medicines. There are also big moms who have cold medicine in their arms and are still hovering next to the shelves. At the rush site in some places, pharmacy personnel said that many people bought drugs for more than 300 yuan.
Strict "bans" on cold medicines still exist
Since January 2022, Delta and Omicron have attacked the "double poison king", making the epidemic situation on the mainland particularly severe.
"Compared with the Delta strain, The Emilion is more transmissible and stealthy, which is also the two major difficulties in epidemic prevention." According to expert analysis, there is a great possibility that Aomi Kerong will develop into a local cluster epidemic in a short period of time, and the pressure on medical resources will increase sharply. In addition, its main symptoms are runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, etc., patients will mistakenly think that it is a common cold or seasonal flu, and the possibility of active detection is relatively small, which brings a lot of challenges to the speed and accuracy of large-scale screening.
The control policy for pharmacies has also been tightened in many regions. On September 2, 2021, the Xi'an Municipal Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters issued the Notice on Further Regulating the Sale and Purchase of "One Withdrawal, One Stop, Two Antibodies" Drugs in Retail Pharmacies and the Nucleic Acid Testing Work of Drug Users, requiring the strict implementation of the work requirements of "one withdrawal, one stop, two antibodies" drug sales and purchase notices, commitments, and inspection of 48-hour negative nucleic acid test certificates and real-name registration.
It is worth noting that after the epidemic was brought under control, Xi'an quickly lifted the "ban on sales" in relevant pharmacies, and officially announced the resumption of the sale of "one withdrawal, one stop and two antibodies" drugs. On January 19, 2022, the Xi'an Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision and Administration issued the Notice on Resuming the Sale of "One Withdrawal, One Stop, Two Antibodies" Drugs to the Public, which clarified that according to the approval requirements of the Xi'an Epidemic Prevention and Control Command, the city's retail pharmacies will resume the sale of "four types of drugs" (excluding online sales) from now on.
The "ban on the sale of fever drugs" in Anyang City, Henan Province, has been issued for three months and is still continuing.
On October 28, 2021, the Anyang Municipal Market Supervision Bureau urgently formulated and issued the "Notice on Stopping the Sale of Fever Reducing Drugs and Real-Name Registration and Sale of Antibiotic Cough and Other Drugs", requiring market supervision departments at all levels to act quickly to supervise retail pharmacies to suspend the sale of fever-reducing drugs, continue to register and sell antibiotics, cough and other drugs under real names, and effectively perform the main responsibilities of epidemic prevention and control.
On January 26, 2022, the Henan Anyang Market Supervision and Administration Bureau issued a news release to continue to stop the sale of antipyretic drugs and proprietary Chinese medicines with antiviral and antipyretic effects, and register and sell antibiotics, antivirals and cough drugs under real names.
This place requires that the sale of "four types of drugs" should not be refused.
In contrast to the tough practices of the above two places, according to the Notice of the Beijing Municipal Drug Administration on Strengthening the Information Registration of Pharmacies purchasing "Four Types of Drugs" and the latest work requirements at the two levels of the municipality, it is clear that pharmacies should provide medication services to the public and must not refuse to sell "four types of drugs". The "four types of drugs" are drugs that mainly target the "11 symptoms" such as fever, cough and fatigue, which are similar to the initial symptoms caused by the new crown pneumonia virus.
According to the requirements, Beijing pharmaceutical retail enterprises should establish their own "four types of drugs" catalogue list according to the actual business situation, implement "one store, one list", and register the purchasers with real names. From 00:00 on January 15, the information registration of personnel purchasing "four types of drugs" in Beijing pharmacies was unified through the "Beijing Medicine" system to achieve the functions of collection, registration and upload.
On January 27, the health community saw two pharmacies in Beijing's Haidian District, each with a QR code for purchasing "Four Types of Drugs" registered. According to the staff, if you buy drugs for symptoms such as fever and cough, you need to scan the code through the "Beijing Health Treasure" to fill in the information. "After registration, the health treasure will appear pop-up window. Go to the nearby community to do a nucleic acid test, and when the results come out, the health treasure can return to normal."
In addition, Beijing has made it clear that in accordance with the principle of online and offline consistency, pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms should also promptly study and update the list of "four types of drugs" and strictly implement the real-name registration management system. Pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms that have already realized the docking of the "Beijing Medicine Pass" system can carry out online sales of "four types of drugs", but need to ensure that the information of "four types of drugs" is not missed or reported.
Shenzhen has adopted a designated pharmacy sales system, and the sales scope of cold medicines has been demarcated throughout the city to facilitate centralized management.
On January 15, 2022, Shenzhen held a press conference on epidemic prevention and control, which clarified that the sales scope of 276 pharmacies in the city was set (if you need to purchase 39 kinds of cold and fever drugs, you must first complete nucleic acid testing at the nucleic acid testing point of the pharmacy). Pharmacies outside the scope are not allowed to sell medicines on the catalogue.
In addition, Shenzhen requires enterprises to suspend online sales of drugs in the catalog. And actively contact the domestic mainstream network platform to give support, assist in the adoption of restrictive measures, suspend the sale of drugs in the catalogue to the Shenzhen area.
According to industry analysts, Beijing and Shenzhen from the response measures of the two places, although for the network channels, one release and one collection, but will "meet the needs" as the primary principle, and some regions "one size fits all" approach in stark contrast. The measures of "strict entry and strict management" adopted by the two places respectively, one is official "certification" and the other is fixed-point sales, which is worth learning from other regions.
Source | Health World Original
Written by | Liu Wenyang
Resources:
1. The official website of Beijing Municipal Drug Administration
2. Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention WeChat public number
3. Chinese pharmacy WeChat public account: "four types of drugs" to lift the ban!
4. Website of the Information Office of the State Council: Zhejiang Held a Press Conference on the Prevention and Control of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic in Zhejiang Province on November 16 (56th)
5. Yangcheng Evening News: Tianjin 20 cases of positive have been spread for three generations, and the adjustment to high risk in one place, experts introduced that there are two major difficulties in facing The Battle of Omicron
6. Crystal News: Pharmacies in many parts of the country have stopped selling cold medicines!
7. Sina.com: Pharmacies in Hubei and Hubei stop selling cold medicines, and the official response: ensure that everyone is verified!
8. Drug search: Ordered by the Food and Drug Administration! "Pharmacy banning the sale of fever drugs" cannot be one-size-fits-all!
9. Anyang Daily: Anyang: Stop selling antipyretic drugs, real-name registration and sale of antibiotics and cough and other drugs
10. Shiyan released: the latest notice! Retail pharmacies across the city suspended the sale of fever and cough medicines
11. Xi'an Release: Attention! The sale of "one withdrawal, one stop, two antibodies" drugs was completely suspended
12. Xi'an released: Notice! These areas have resumed normal production and living order in an orderly manner
13. Chinese pharmacies: reversal: four types of drugs need to be purchased "conditionally"