- During the presentation of the deconfinement plan, Tuesday at the National Assembly, Edouard Philippe unveiled the screening policy wanted by the government.
- To avoid a second wave, the government wants to massively test people with symptoms of Covid-19 and their contacts, but also set up "brigades" in each department to identify these contacts.
- From May 11, 700,000 tests per week will be carried out and people tested positive will be invited to isolate themselves at home or in a place made available.
The objective is clear: do not allow any infected patient to pass through the cracks. From May 11, the date of the first phase of deconfinement, "health brigades" will be set up in each department to follow the sick, identify people who have been in contact with them and avoid the appearance of new outbreaks of infection, announced Edouard Philippe, this Tuesday at the National Assembly.
The government has chosen to follow the advice of the Scientific Council, which recommended the establishment of "telephone platforms supplemented by mobile teams for the management of diagnosed cases and their contacts". What are these "brigades"? How will they work? Can they stop the epidemic? 20 Minutes enlightens you.
How do these “health brigades” work?
Tuesday, in front of the deputies, Edouard Philippe unveiled the government's strategy: mass screening. By carrying out nearly 700,000 tests per day, health authorities hope to target and isolate patients affected by the new coronavirus. It is at this point that the "health brigades" come into play: once the infected patients have been identified, these brigades will be responsible for "investigating" the entourage of the patients, therefore potentially contaminated, to find out with whom these people may have been in contact. These people will in turn be contacted for testing.
"We will initiate work to identify and test all those, symptomatic or not, who have had close contact with it," said Edouard Philippe, Tuesday, adding that the tests will be reimbursed 100% by Social Security. "In each department, we will form brigades responsible for putting together the list of contact cases, calling them, inviting them to be tested," added the Prime Minister.
How are these people going to be isolated?
Once the infected people have been identified, they should be isolated to limit the spread of the virus. "We will leave the choice to the person tested positive to isolate himself at home, which will lead to the confinement of the whole home for 14 days, or else to isolate himself in a place made available to him, in particular in requisitioned hotels" , detailed Edouard Philippe before the parliamentarians. And the head of government warned: there will be controls, "but our objective is to rely largely on the civility of each".
Who to work in these "brigades"?
If the government has not disclosed the number of people who will make up these "brigades", Edouard Philippe has however indicated that "general practitioners and liberal nurses" will form "the first line" which will identify the contacts of a patient within his family unit. Health Insurance teams, municipal social action centers, town halls, departments or even associations such as the Red Cross will then take over, the Prime Minister continued, adding that the organization would be local level.
According to Jean-François Delfraissy, the president of the Scientific Council, 30,000 people could be necessary to form "health brigades" in each department. "Given the size of our country, we must count on around 30,000 people: general practitioners, caregivers, members of the voluntary sector, city hall health services ... Without that, it will not work," he explained. in an interview with Le Monde, before adding: "If there is not this human force (...), we will crash".
Can these “health brigades” curb the epidemic?
For William Dab, former Director General of Health and epidemiologist, "identifying cases, isolating them, identifying their contacts and being able to test and isolate them is the only way to break the chain of transmission and controlling the epidemic, ”he explains to 20 Minutes. But the specialist estimates that the device arrives a little late: “There is still a daily influx of hospital patients and one does not seek to know where they were contaminated. This tracing method should have been implemented from the start of containment, ”he laments.
For Pascal Crépey, epidemiologist at the École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique (EHESP), the priority is to act quickly: "This system will have a real effect if we put it in place as quickly as possible and if we scrupulously identifies the people with whom the patients have been in contact ”. "It is this speed and precision that will guarantee success," he adds.
Catherine Hill, also an epidemiologist, salutes the device, but estimates that it "does only half the work". “Half of the contaminations are made by people who have not had, or not yet, symptoms. These undetectable cases continue to circulate and spread the virus, "explains the specialist, who recommends massively increasing tests for people who do not have symptoms. And Pascal Crépey warns: “It is a device which can work in theory, but which has never been tested on this scale in France. We travel in unknown territory ”.
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