- For the past few weeks, several laboratories have been offering screenings in unusual places, such as one of the car parks at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, where 20 Minutes has visited.
- Prescribed by prescription, these virological tests make it possible to identify sick people, but they are far from being 100% reliable.
- This Sunday, Édouard Philippe indicated that progressive deconfinement would be accompanied by a screening plan for 500,000 people per week.
Slight curve to the right. Acceleration along metal barriers. And complete U-turn on the left to return to the starting point. For a few weeks now, the P7 car park at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris has had everything from training circuits for beginner pilots. Except that the two tents that act as a stand on the right do not offer supplies but a levy. Every day, at this location, the biologists at Cerba laboratories test, on average, around fifty people to determine if they are carriers of Covid-19.
The ballet is now well established. As in fast food, each car advances with the window open. A biologist takes the information on the fly and checks the prescription, while a second takes care of the sample, without the patient getting out of his vehicle. A copiously disinfected chair is there to welcome the sick who come on foot. For each, a swab, a kind of long cotton swab, in the right nostril. A second in the left. To be effective, the nasopharyngeal sample must be deep ...
"It's a little unpleasant but it doesn't hurt ...", tries to reassure Patrice Hérisson, the regional director of Île-de-France in this laboratory. "Hmm ... It shows that he didn't take the test ..." sighs Clemence. In her little red and white car, this 24-year-old nurse was one of the first to show up that morning. She knows what she is talking about. "I already came 15 days ago," she continues. I was positive. I come back to do it to find out if I can go back to work… ”
Objective: 500,000 tests per week by May 11
Behind her, in the queue, mainly caregivers and individuals who are sent by their attending physician. Like Paul *, an electrician in his forties. “I got it and I really drooled over it. I was hospitalized and everything…, he says, suitcases under his eyes. Today, I come to take the test to reassure my loved ones. My wife and my daughter, especially, who does not understand that I cannot take her in my arms… ”
Thibaut Carrère nods, sympathetic. Medical biologist, it is he who takes the samples that morning. On his list,around twenty patients who made an appointment. But from May 11, maybe a lot more. This Sunday, Edouard Philippe, the Prime Minister, has, in fact, indicated that the progressive deconfinement will be based on a strategy of massive tests from this date. The objective is to go from 150,000 tests per week currently to 500,000, and to isolate all positive people. As in Germany which, strong from this strategy, ensures that the epidemic is now "under control" on its soil.
"We are sailing by sight", recognizes the biologist
Patrice Hérisson has no doubts about Germany. Tests, a little more. "We know that the results of ourvirological samples have 20 to 30% false negatives[people actually infected but not detected]. To be sure, you must take the test at least 48 hours after the onset of symptoms. It's not easy… ”So, of course, there are also serological tests whose purpose is to look for the presence of antibodies. But these are not yet validated and questioned ... "We learn every day," sighs the director.
A Breton company launches a rapid test to screen for coronavirus https://t.co/rD8fQ2eRVt via @ 20minutes
- jetwittesolidaire (@yserdna) April 19, 2020" Welcome to our world ! "Quips Marine Anselmo. While adjusting her charlotte, the biologist does not hide her skepticism. “We don't even know for sure yet if we are definitively immunized once we have caught the virus… We are sailing by sight. It will be tense to test 500,000 people per week. If only to have the necessary equipment… ”Everyone has in mind the experience of the United Kingdom which spent, urgently, 20 million dollars to buy from China tests which were, in fact, revealed… ineffective.
Édouard Philippe, for his part, has not yet indicated precisely how the screening plan envisaged by the government was going to be structured. But everyone is preparing for it. According to our information, the Paris city hall has already identified huge spaces in each arrondissement, such as the P7 car park at the Parc des Expositions. They should quickly turn into as many collection centers. It is only a matter of days now.
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- Coronavirus
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- Olivier Véran
- Covid 19
- Edouard Philippe
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