As the coronavirus epidemic continues to progress in France, Covid-19 screening centers are crumbling under demands.

The laboratory assistants hope that Jean Castex's announcements will make their work easier while the situation sometimes pushes them to the limit of burnout.

REPORTAGE

In large cities, the endless lines to get tested are an obstacle course for patients suspecting contamination with the coronavirus.

But it is also a real ordeal for caregivers in the laboratories.

"We are all tired. We all crack at a certain moment but the goal of the game is not to crack at the same time", blows at the microphone of Europe 1 Caroline Gutsmuth, medical biologist at the head of a laboratory in Neuilly.

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In the small room where she performs the tests, Caroline Berger, another biologist, barely has time for lunch.

From 7 am to 10 pm, she goes through the PCR tests and announces the results to the patients.

“It takes someone to answer the phone all the time to repeat the same thing 150 times. The problem is that people who are positive are called on the phone to make sure they are aware of their situation. result. So that also takes time. "

To save time, in fact, Prime Minister Jean Castex made announcements on Friday.

To get tested, there will now be priority lines for symptomatic people, contact cases and nursing staff, at reserved time slots.

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A glimmer of hope after the Prime Minister's announcements

Measures called for several times by François Blanchecotte, president of the union of biologists: "We are rather satisfied because the insults that we receive in the cabinet are no longer supported. It must stop."

According to him, to avoid burnout, it will be necessary to put in place other Covid-19 test methods.

An idea supported by the epidemiologist, Catherine Hill, invited this Saturday morning on Europe 1. "If we could finally have saliva tests, which are available in other countries, we could group the tests. Have samples of 20 people in a single tube ", she proposed for example, in order to facilitate the speed of the results and thus to relieve the laboratories.