—Health Minister debunks myth during daily ‘COVID’ update

BEING able to hold your breath for 10 seconds or more without coughing or feeling tightness or discomfort does not mean that you are free of COVID-19, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony has said. In a scenario as novel for many of us as the COVID-19 pandemic, where little accurate information is known about the deadly virus, it is easy for misconceptions and misinformation to spread, especially given the wide use of the Internet and social and broadcast media. The breath test, however, the minister assured, also falls into that category.
“If we had such a simple test, then all this work that we are doing with antigen and PCR would be totally unnecessary,” he contended, during his daily COVID-19 update with the department of Public Information (DPI). Dr Anthony noted, however, that some persons who have been infected with COVID-19 would experience respiratory distress.
“But, as you know, there are lots of people who would be infected with the virus, who can be asymptomatic, meaning they have no symptoms. So they don’t have any breathing problems, and therefore if you use this test, then persons who are positive would not show up in the test, because they’re asymptomatic,” he further explained.
As such, the minister stated, it is a myth to think that holding your breath for 10, or 20 seconds, proves that a person is negative, or is not infected with COVID-19.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he said.