REPORTAGE
The coronavirus circulates less on the territory, but is more essential than ever the need to test where it could still spread. The Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency therefore multiplies screening campaigns, particularly in working-class neighborhoods. Europe 1 followed the ARS in Villiers-le-Bel, in the Val d'Oise, the only metropolitan department still classified red.
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"Prevention is better than cure"
A large crowd throngs the market square where tents accommodate several doctors. "Even if there is a lot of waiting, it must be done because with health, we do not laugh. Better prevention than cure," says Bolili came with his two children. Two hundred people are separated into two groups. The first includes people with symptoms, the second those who are asymptomatic. They must then sign a document to authorize the search for contact cases in their entourage if ever the test is positive.
After two hours of waiting, Lila is tested by two medical students. "It's horrible," she exclaims after the unpleasant passage of a long cotton swab in her nose. "It's a bit to reassure me too. To say to me 'here, I didn't get it'. I'm not going to infect other people."
"Check that there are no blind spots"
For Aurélien Rousseau, director general of ARS Ile-de-France, these test campaigns are essential in cities where the population does not always have access to healthcare. "We are coming to check that there are no blind spots in our knowledge of the epidemic in the region and to follow up if the epidemic is indeed decreasing or if there is a risk that it will resume."
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In these departments where the virus circulates a little more than elsewhere, these massive and completely free screenings should continue as long as the virus is present.