My name is Charlotte and today I am bringing you a new episode of Taiwan in the international news.

Taiwan and Denmark develop a rapid test kit for COVID-19

As I am filming this video, I saw that we hit 20000 subscribers?! That is so crazy!

If someone would have told me a few months ago that one day in my life I would have 20000 subscribers,

I would not have believed them.

We just made it!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Everyone who liked my videos, who watched my videos, who made some comments,

who enjoys my content, I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I will be doing my best to keep making videos and to keep giving you some quality content.

Today I want to talk about an article with the title: “Taiwan – Denmark develop rapid test kit for COVID-19”

That is awesome news. It is about a test kit that only takes 12 minutes to have results.

I also want to mention another article from Belgium.

I thought it was so dramatic and hilarious how something could go so wrong with the tests in Belgium.

First, the article published on the 20th of April in the BioSpectrum Asia Edition says:

“Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan has announced that a joint effort of Taiwan-Denmark startup BluSense Diagnostics

and Taoyuan City-headquartered Ten-Chen Medical Group in northern Taiwan,

has developed a rapid test kit for COVID-19. Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan announced the progress on 10 April 2020.

The test kit has 90 per cent sensitivity rate and can detect the virus in only 12 minutes from a single drop of blood, the MOST said.

It can be used to diagnose asymptomatic cases and determine whether it is safe to release a COVID-19 patient from the hospital.

That is awesome news!

Clinical trials were carried out with promising results in the first week of April at Hvidovre Hospital, the second-largest medical centre in Denmark.

Additional testing will be conducted in hospitals in Italy over the following week, with the kit estimated to receive EU certification in May.

I wonder if that is already happening right now? I have not heard of it.

I think this is amazing news because this is one of the problems. People who do not have any symptoms can pass on COVID-19

This test is so fast and convenient, and you just need one drop of blood, can give us such fast results

That is something we needed urgently.

I want to show you something else. In contrast with this article…

In Belgium, we had an article that I translated for you, published by “Het Nieuwsblad” on the 10th of April.

The title was: “Bleeding noses caused by wrong instructions. What went wrong with the Corona tests.”

Taiwan and Denmark are successful with testing and Belgium…

It was not really Belgium's fault. I am going to translate the article for you, so you know what went wrong with the tests.

It is not really Belgium's fault, but it was dramatic and sad to see this.

The nursing homes and care facilities finally received the 20.000 tests that were promised to them.

But the first tests were not free of complications. Several test kits included wrong instructions.

The consequences were bleeding noses and wasted tests.

A usual corona test is constituted with a long and thin cotton swab that goes deep into the nose canal.

This is what the guidelines present in the test kit explained. But not all off the test swabs that were delivered were fit to go into the nose.

Some of them are bigger and are meant to be used for a throat swab. In your mouth, not in your nose.

If you forcefully push the thicker swab into the nose, it will lead to a lot of pain and bleeding noses.

On top of that, most of the swabs that have been wrongfully used cannot deliver any reliable results.

It only took a few hours for the right information to be shared, but this information came too late for some places.

They are currently waiting for exact numbers of tests that have been wasted.

As you can see, the problem was that the tests that were delivered here in Belgium had instructions that were meant to be for nose swabs

But some of the swabs were meant to be used for the throat. Nobody could have known that

It was very shocking to see. Even the right nose swab looks so uncomfortable. They push it very deep into your nose.

I saw a video on the news of an old man who was getting this test and it was shocking. How deep is it going?!

If you can imagine that this unpleasant experience is even worse because they used the wrong swab

It is dramatic and I cannot even imagine the pain that those people must have felt.

I thought this was an interesting little fact to share with you guys.

In Belgium right now, there are many more people that are being tested and now the right information about the tests is being spread.

The mistake has been corrected. But this was still a very unfortunate event.

This is how a normal Corona test should be (through the nose).

But several test kits that were sent to the care facilities included bigger swabs, that were meant to be used for throat tests

We received several messages from the care facilities that the tests were difficult and causing a lot of pain

We investigated it and discovered that some of the tests did not include the right instructions.

The normal nose test is very unpleasant. A wrong nose test is even more painful.

The results of these wrong tests might be inaccurate.

It is time to read some of your comments on my previous video “What Belgium failed to learn from Taiwan”.

The first comment I see here is from Hao-Jen Wang. You wrote it in 2 languages! Thank you so much.

“In your video, I think a bit of an important issue is the trade-off of personal privacy in epidemic prevention,

but I think this is also taken into consideration by the Taiwan government.

First, the government will delete the information monitored during the quarantine period after the 14-day in order to ensure personal privacy,

in addition, we do not monitor detailed information that is too private like South Korea or China, because that may cause subsequent social problems.

I think this is also a reason why New Zealand will choose to learn from Taiwan rather than South Korea or other countries

because we will consider the effects of epidemic prevention, human rights, and personal privacy.”

That was indeed a big deal here in Belgium. When the “tracing” was mentioned for the first time,

People were freaking out. They were concerned about their privacy. I do not know about the situation in South Korea or China

It is good to hear that Taiwan is taking all the different factors into consideration to have a safe “tracing” of people.

One comment says: If the mask is useless, the medical staff will not wear it.

It is said that masks are useless, just because there are not enough masks to supply, and masks should be reserved for medical personnel.

After all, the medical staff has fallen, and no one can treat the infected patients.

That is true, I completely agree that if the government was aware we needed the masks but they decided not to tell us,

It was probably for a good reason, to keep it for the medical staff. If that is the case, I feel lied to

I do not care much; I am staying at home, so I do not need a mask. I would gladly leave my masks to the medical staff

Because I know that they have to face the virus.

But to say to everyone that the mask is “useless”, I think that goes too far.

Maybe they could have said: “You can make a home-made mask for yourself; it can help. Let us leave the real masks for the medical staff.”

I think that everyone would have complied. I hope that the government can be transparent.

Kenzoa2 writes: “Many people say that it is easier for island countries to control the epidemic ~ so it is not so serious ~

but the United Kingdom is also an island country ~ but it is quite serious there ~ the situation in Japan is not good ~

I think the attitude to the virus at the beginning is the key !!”

I think that is true. It is so important to react fast like Taiwan did.

It would be absurd to say the only reason why Taiwan succeeded was because they are an island.

That is not true. You can compare with other islands.

I had to take a little break because there was a tractor passing in front of my house. It was super noisy!

That was it for today's episode of Taiwan in the international news. I hope you enjoyed because I always enjoy making these videos

Do not forget to like and subscribe, because it really helps me.

I hope to see you very soon in the next video. Bye bye ~