Nucleic acid test should refer to the novel coronavirus nucleic acid test, which can be done for cold and fever.
Nucleic acid test is done by using the patient’s blood, respiratory specimen or feces to find out whether there is any nucleic acid of the foreign invading virus in it, so as to determine whether the patient is infected by the virus or not. Generally speaking, nucleic acid test is done through nasopharyngeal swab test, which only needs to collect the patient’s respiratory secretion. A cold and fever will not affect the results of the nucleic acid test, so a cold and fever can be tested for nucleic acid.
If the patient has a cold and fever caused by a virus or bacteria, patients with no epidemiologic history or history of close contact still need to go to the designated hospital fever clinic for nucleic acid testing in order to avoid cross-infection.
Since oral antiviral and anti-infective drugs may affect the results of nucleic acid test, it is recommended that patients with cold and fever avoid taking antiviral and anti-infective drugs before the nucleic acid test.
During the epidemic, if fever symptoms occur, it is recommended that nucleic acid testing be performed promptly to screen for infection with the new coronavirus.