Strasbourg (AFP)
The residents and the staff of a municipal Ehpad of Nancy will be subjected to a systematic screening of Covid-19 by blood test, undoubtedly a "national first", announced on Tuesday the mayor of the city Laurent Hénart.
"The city of Nancy is implementing a systematic Covid-19 screening today at the Ehpad Notre Maison", a municipal accommodation facility for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) of 144 residents and 90 agents, explained its services. in a press release.
"I believe that this experiment, validated by the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Grand Est, is a national first," said Laurent Hénart to AFP.
This blood test will measure the level of antibodies in each person sampled and thus identify those who have not been infected with Covid-19, those who are in the process of infection and those who are immune .
"People who are immunized will be able to go to work serenely," rejoiced Mr. Hénart, stressing that the staff feared to contaminate the residents, after several series of deaths in nursing homes in eastern France.
The first wave of tests for all residents and staff is expected to be completed by the end of the week, before a second in 10 days.
Residents who cannot, for medical reasons, have a blood test will have a nasal sample.
"I hope that by the end of the week, we will be able, as the Minister of Health said on Saturday, to speed up on these serological tests," said the Director General during a telephone press point. from the Grand Est Regional Health Agency (ARS), Christophe Lannelongue, stressing the imminence of a decree framing them.
"Our wish is to set up these tests in priority in the Ehpad," added Mr. Lannelongue.
The ARS Grand Est indicated on its Twitter account that nearly 60% of Ehpad in the region were concerned by a confirmed or possible Covid-19 case and that 452 people had "died in Ehpad cumulative on March 30", without that the number of deaths due to Covid-19 can be determined "precisely."
The president of the departmental council of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Mathieu Klein, asked for his part in a press release "a large-scale, progressive and fair screening in the 73 Ehpad" of the department, "as soon as the scientific validation of serology tests by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products ".
Faced with the spread of the virus, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran asked the Ehpad on Saturday to "prepare to move towards individual isolation of each resident in the rooms".
In this retirement home in Nancy, a six-bedroom "covid +" area was created to accommodate sick residents and limit the risk of contagion.
Confined to their floor since Thursday, its residents must since Tuesday take their meals in their rooms.
"We will ask residents to limit traffic in the corridors of their floor to the mere need for physical activity to avoid the risk of psychomotor loss," said the statement.
In a Grand Est region which remains one of the main French foci of the epidemic, Lorraine has seen its situation worsen in recent days and had in turn, after Alsace, benefit from evacuations patients to other regions or neighboring countries.
© 2020 AFP