Massive screening operations for Covid-19 start this Monday, December 14 in several French cities. Explanations.
- The first operations began on December 14, others will follow until mid-January
Which cities are concerned, from when?
The metropolises of Le Havre and Charleville-Mézières open the ball for massive screenings for Covid-19 between December 14 and 19. Then will come the turn of Roubaix and Saint-Étienne, around January 11.
What tests are offered?
Health authorities offer either antigen tests, the results of which will be available in fifteen minutes, or PCR tests, the results of which will be available in twelve hours.
Where to get tested?
Each town hall has adapted to its available sites, so it is best to inquire there directly. Schools, businesses, gymnasiums and pop-up screening sites have been mobilized.
What obligations?
Any. Screening, like isolation, is based on the principle of voluntary participation.
What objectives?
Test 20-25% of the local population over a short period of time. The objective of the operation is to curb the spread of the epidemic but also to experiment with a new health strategy. “These operations are as much a means of limiting the spread of the virus in the communities concerned as a lever for experimentation with our ‘test-alert-protect’ strategy, which you can see evolving”, explains the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
For scientists, this also makes it possible to have a photograph of the state of virus carriage at a given moment, particularly in healthy carriers who infect the population without knowing it.
What isolation of positive people?
A massive screening campaign is only effective if people who test positive for Covid-19 isolate themselves. They will be able to do so either at home or in hotels made available to patients. Patients are advised to strictly self-isolate for 7 days.
Gray areas and questions
Mass screening is an experiment, so for the moment, not a solution. Slovakia has just abandoned this strategy, for lack of effectiveness.
The incubation period of the disease and the reliability of the tests also pose problems for scientists, because a negative test is not to be taken as a passport of non-contagion.
Finally, no one can know for the moment how many city dwellers will actually go to be tested, and will agree to isolate themselves, because everything is based on volunteering.
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