Nucleic acid detection remains indispensable to confirm novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) cases despite inevitable false negative results, a medical expert said at a press conference Sunday.

Gao Zhancheng, a pneumology expert with the Peking University People's Hospital, made the remarks in response to the doubt about false negative results in nucleic acid detections for the novel coronavirus.

The result of nucleic acid testing for any virus cannot be 100 percent positive, and the novel coronavirus is no exception, said Gao, adding that the detection results are also related to the conditions of patients, different stages of diseases, sampling methods and testing situations.

If the suspected NCP patients receive negative results in initial detections, they should receive quarantine treatment and observation in designated hospitals according to current requirements, while the patients with positive results can be confirmed as NCP cases, he said.

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