In his speech to Parliament to present the deconfinement plan, Édouard Philippe announced the performance of 700,000 virological tests per week.
The questions concerning the after May 11 are numerous and are aimed in particular at the “700,000 virological tests per week as of May 11”, announced by Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. Currently, only people at risk, nursing staff, pregnant women or even residents of Ephad are tested as a priority in the event of symptoms of Covid-19. Passed the date of May 11, “if you have symptoms (…) and want to know if you are sick, you can, you will have to benefit from this virological test”assured Olivier Véran this Wednesday, April 29 on France info. For this, it will be necessary to obtain a medical prescription from your general practitioner, but this test will also be intended for people “who will have had close contact”with a positive person, that they “whether symptomatic or not”said the Prime Minister.
Between 3 and 5 hours to get the result of the sample
These tests can be carried outwherever it can be done and where it makes sense”, says Olivier Véran. Thus, hospitals, city, veterinary, departmental, research laboratories as well as those of the police and the gendarmerie will be authorized to perform these samples. Other places should also be able to carry out these tests such as tents or public buildings, as is the case at the town hall of 5and district of Paris. “Drives” could also be set up where the test is done while the driver remains behind the wheel of his car in parking lots.
No matter where the test is done, it must “must be carried out by trained personnel with special equipment and laboratory expertise”explains the Pasteur Institute to France info. In addition, this will be 100% covered by Health Insurance, against €54 currently for the PCR test which is reimbursed up to 60% by Social Security. This staff includes biologists, nurses and doctors. The goal is to havepeople who are trained to do swabbing”, says Olivier Véran. This fairly quick sampling method involves inserting a long cotton swab — the swab — deep into the nose. The laboratory will then check whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus is present in the sample by looking for the potential presence of the virus RNA. It takes between 3 and 5 hours to have the results which will be communicated to the patient within 24 hours after carrying out the test which is reliable at “98% when sampled correctly”specifies François Blanchecotte, the national president of the union of biologists, to Franceinfo.
700,000 weekly tests, an objective “attainable”
Regarding the objective of 700,000 weekly tests announced by Édouard Philippe, the president of the national union of biologists, François Blanchecotte, believes that this is an objective “reachable”. This requires a collective effort. “We will all have to get involved, both health professionals such as biologists, nurses, but also doctors in order to be able to sample in sufficient quantities and screen en masse”, he predicts. The other necessity to make this figure possible is to have enough material. “We must have enough reagents and machines. Normally, a grouped state and professional command cell is set up. We should have the effects fairly quickly, that is to say, to see the orders that we have placed arrive”he concludes.
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