- Jérôme Salomon, the Director General of Health, explained that France "responded voluntarily" to the WHO recommendations to "test" suspected cases.
- 20 Minutes verifies this declaration.
Did France respond "voluntarily" to the request, made on March 16 by the WHO, to test for detecting Covid-19? This was stated by Jérôme Salomon on Tuesday before the deputies of the parliamentary commission of inquiry relating to "the impact, the management and the consequences in all its dimensions of the epidemic of coronavirus".
The Director General of Health, known to the general public for his daily updates on the evolution of the epidemic during confinement, was asked about the implementation of tests to detect the new coronavirus. He first returned to the WHO recommendations. 20 Minutes has verified his statements.
On March 16, WHO calls for "testing"
The director general of the international organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called on March 16 to "test" the suspected cases. "There may have been a difficulty in interpretation in the words of the Director General of WHO," said Jérôme Salomon. According to him, Doctor Tedros “did not target France, but did target many countries which did not have access to the tests - there were still many countries which were not equipped with reference laboratories - [… ] ”.
WHO recommendations for mass screening: "They did not target France but the many countries which did not have access to tests", replies Jérôme Salomon.
> "We responded even more voluntarily to this request" #DirectAN # COVID19 pic.twitter.com/zK1roO1KKq
However, such precision is not found in the speech of the Director General of the World Health Organization. "We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on March 16. On the same day, 151 countries reported cases of Covid-19, according to the WHO. Solicited by 20 Minutes , the international institution had not responded, at the time we publish this article, to our request for clarification on the meaning of the message launched by its Director General.
Jérôme Salomon then affirms that France "responded even more voluntarily to the request of the WHO" by mobilizing the laboratories. He explains: “You know that, in addition to the hospital laboratories, we have mobilized all of the medical biology analysis laboratories, departmental laboratories, veterinary laboratories, research laboratories. "
The mobilization of laboratories by the government was not linear: the first tests were first entrusted to hospital laboratories. On March 8, biology laboratories in town obtained, by the publication of a decree, the right to carry out screening tests. At the beginning, only six brands of tests are authorized, recalls to 20 Minutes François Blanchecotte, national president of the union of biologists. "Around March 18, it was increased to 14, then in late March, early April, to 39," he said.
Later recourse to other laboratories
The use of veterinary laboratories, which depend on the State, came later. Alerted in particular by local elected officials about the capacities of these laboratories, the government authorized them to carry out tests on April 6, three weeks after the declaration of the Director General of WHO. This authorization was also granted to research laboratories on the same day.
In March, France still has a policy of testing only severe cases, as recommended by the WHO, in particular due to difficulties in supplying the equipment necessary to carry out the tests. At the end of the deconfinement, the testing capacity evolves, to reach 100,000 tests per day currently, according to Jérôme Salomon. Test cases are suspected, but also their contacts. A review of the government's position.
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