Close-up: The busyness and helplessness of a Polish nucleic acid testing doctor

WARSAW, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- A Polish nucleic acid testing doctor is busy and helpless

Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Chen Zhang Zhang

"You tell the police that the person's quarantine period has arrived and he can be released from quarantine." Faced with questions about the validity of the nucleic acid report on the other end of the phone, Machei Rigarski exercised restraint and tried not to argue.

"Some people have reached quarantine but the system hasn't been updated, which means they don't know if they can leave their homes." Dr. Rigarski explains.

Rigalski, 36, is a pediatrician at a public hospital who specializes in treating allergies and gastrointestinal disorders. After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in Poland, he did nucleic acid testing for others outside of the standby "shift" hours.

On average, forty or fifty people come to him for testing every day. Whenever someone wants to leave the country in a group and the country of entry needs a negative nucleic acid test certificate, there are many people who look for Rigalsky.

The week the reporter met Rigalsky, he was particularly busy. On Tuesday at 6 p.m., someone made an appointment with him for testing. At 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Rigarski set off again in the sleet. He was to test 16 people who had made advance appointments in the densely populated Mokotov district south of the capital, Warsaw.

Rigalsky's black sedan was his mobile laboratory. For safety reasons, he usually does testing outdoors, and sometimes goes to the customer's home or hotel room to take samples, as long as the customer is willing to pay a part of the service fee.

It is natural to disinfect the hands before testing. The people at the head of the line watched Rigarski tear open the swab package and calm down, then carefully removed the mask. The doctor slowly put the nasal swab deep into the nasal cavity of the person being tested, reached a certain position and gently rotated the swab, stayed for a few seconds and then took it out. Usually at this time, the person being tested will look up and cry because of discomfort. For small children, the process is even more torturous. However, Rigarski will also change to a throat swab according to the needs of the person being tested.

After a while, except for one person who broke the contract, the other 15 people were tested in turn. Rigarski packed up briefly and prepared to leave, after which he sent the samples to the laboratory he worked with for analysis and a report.

Rigarski told reporters that in Poland, people who want to do testing are usually nervous. They are afraid of testing positive and being quarantined once they are infected, and no one can help solve any problems during the quarantine.

"So people who suspect [being infected] prefer to go to a store or pharmacy to buy medicine." That's how the virus spreads. He said.

Data from the Polish Ministry of Health shows that with the arrival of the fifth wave of the new crown epidemic, the number of new cases in Poland in a single day in January this year has repeatedly set a record for the highest number since the outbreak of the epidemic, of which the highest value appeared on January 27, at 57,659 cases. According to local media reports, more than 1 million people are currently in quarantine in Poland.

According to the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom,"Seeing the World with Data" website, among all EU member states, Poland officially counts the lowest number of tests per 1,000 people. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, 791 out of every 1,000 Poles have been tested. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 deaths in Poland is at a high level. As of Feb. 2, 105753 people in the country of 38 million people had died from COVID-19 and complications.

In Poland, people are faced with the choice of going to a public or private health facility when they seek medical treatment. Public hospitals have tight medical resources and a large number of patients, so many people choose to go to private hospitals for treatment and testing.

"Some people are tested in the public health system, and that's easy to document. Others go to private health facilities for diagnostic or travel purposes or test themselves (with kits), which cannot be traced. Others are tested in the workplace or at the entrance to banquets and receptions, and the data is unlikely to be recorded. Rigalski said.

The Polish health ministry officially announced the arrival of the fifth wave on January 19, and public sector workers were required to work from home as much as possible, but few more stringent anti-epidemic restrictions followed. In addition, only 56% of Poland's population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which is also the lowest among EU countries. As the more contagious but mildly symptomatic Variant of the Omiljung strain circulates in Europe, Poland has more vocal support for easing of virus testing policies, or even so-called "herd immunity."

Rigalski was adamantly opposed to this. "You can't tell people they don't have to be afraid of COVID-19," he said, "you need to warn them and make sure people are protected." Covid-19 has the potential to induce other conditions, and there are also critical cases, and you can't let the epidemic spread. We need to do everything we can to ease the outbreak. (End)