Almost five months have passed since the first official death linked to Covid-19 in France, the possibility of being tested quickly still skates over in France, despite the efforts of the authorities.
"The appointment dates are still too long, there are efforts to be made," lamented Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Scientific Council during the pandemic, who experienced it at his expense, calling a laboratory, without giving his name. Result: "an appointment six days later".
In Paris, it also happens to have to wait a week to receive the result of his virological test in an analysis laboratory, while the health authorities ensure that the result must be transmitted within 24 hours.
Still laboratories not doing "the slightest test"
If the country is capable of doing 700,000 tests per week "and even a million if necessary", the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran acknowledged on franceinfo that "there are places where we are almost saturated - where we test a lot, like Ile-de-France (…) - others where there is a lot of margin ”.
"I mobilized the laboratories so that they work more with each other, I have a list of municipalities in Ile-de-France where the laboratories do not yet do the slightest test, so I told them: , it's impossible ".
"Bottlenecks"
For the director of the Ile-de-France ARS, Aurélien Rousseau, three factors of tension favor the "bottlenecks": the resumption of surgery (tests before operating), the tests before going on leave and the massive shipments of Health Insurance screening vouchers. More than 2 million have already been distributed.
"We would like the politicians, before making announcements, work with the administrations so that everything is ready", plague François Blanchecotte, president of the Union of biologists (SDB). "It is not a technical problem, but an organizational one (…) I already said two months ago that screening thousands of people in the same place at the same time would pose a problem".
"There is an incompressible time for sampling, for cleaning the rooms to ensure safety," explains the biologist. Without forgetting the other examinations (cancer, diabetes, etc.) and the leave of tired staff.
Still insufficient efforts according to the union of biologists
The 40,000 laboratory technicians can now take samples in addition to medical biologists. Department prefects can also authorize medical or nursing students to do so. In some regions firefighters or the Red Cross help.
But the president of the SDB "does not see how we can get there if there are not more caregivers doing it" too. Allusion in particular to the more than 200,000 active doctors who could participate in the samples. The union has also posted a tutorial showing how to do them correctly.
The way of saliva testing
Machine virological saliva tests "would save a tremendous amount of time," he also says. Some biologists use them "on an experimental basis and are working on this subject with the CNR" (national reference center), according to Lionel Barrand of the Union of Young Medical Biologists.
But "these tests are not reliable", judged Professor Delfraissy, even if he thinks that they will evolve and that "by the end of August", we will be able to have them.
No more clutter with non-prescription testing
The imminent possibility of being able to do the classic test without a prescription, announced by President Macron on July 14, will add to the clutter and "require a logistical organization", recognized the Minister of Health. “We saw it in Ile-de-France: when we offer a million people to be tested, there is a saturation effect”.
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- Covid 19
- Olivier Véran
- Screening
- Health