Announced by the main pharmacists’ union, free self-testing for the end-of-year celebrations is ultimately not an option that has been chosen by the government, said Olivier Véran.
- Anticipated by the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF), free self-tests for the Christmas period were not retained by the government due to a lack of supply in pharmacies.
The self-tests will ultimately not be reimbursed by Health Insurance for the holiday period. While on Friday, the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF) had declared that the government was preparing to announce a reimbursement of self-tests up to two per person between December 20 and January 2, it will ultimately be nothing. .
guest of France Inter Saturday, December 18, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran indicated that he “there (will) be no free autests distributed in pharmacies”. “The self-test costs 5.20 euros. PCRs, antigen tests are free (for vaccinated people), we do almost a million a day, all the costs have been covered from the start by solidarity national,” he added.
A risk of shortage for Christmas
On Friday, the FSPF had feared “high demand” self-tests and regretted that pharmacists did not “not notified early enough” to complete their stocks, estimated “between 800,000 and one million self-tests”.
“If they had been taken care of, it was impossible to provide the request of all the French people, so ultimately this option was not chosen” during the Health Defense Council on Friday afternoon, developed on France Info the president of the FSPF, Philippe Besset.
According to him, the risk of shortage for Christmas is great. “We don’t have enough stocks. Let’s say there are 100 self-tests in stock in each pharmacy, that would mean that there are between two and three million self-tests available. This is clearly insufficient to respond to a request for tens of millions of self-tests”underlined Philippe Besset on LCI. “We sell a box a minute, practically”ensures for its part on France Info Véronique Rigaud, pharmacist. In another pharmacy, more than 250 boxes were sold in 48 hours.
Will it therefore be mission impossible to get tested before going to Christmas Eve with loved ones? Olivier Véran acknowledged that not all French people will have the opportunity to carry out a PCR or antigen test either on December 24. “60 million French people will soon celebrate Christmas, pharmacists and laboratories, on the alert permanently, will not test 60 million French people in one day”said the Minister of Health.
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