INTERVIEW
"We must find the carriers of the virus!", Hammered the epidemiologist Catherine Hill, Saturday on Europe 1. While the health authorities have warned of a resumption of the epidemic after 1,130 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in just 24 hours, the epidemiologist at the Institut Gustave Roussy, in Villejuif, denounced a "big mistake" in the screening policy. A screening which should be generalized according to her, and not limited to the only sources of contamination already identified.
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Tests, "the key to success"
France exceeded the thousand cases of coronavirus detected in 24 hours on Friday, for the second day in a row, finding a contamination threshold comparable to those observed on leaving confinement. "We must be worried!", Warns Catherine Hill, adding that if France has made progress on the problem of masks, this is not the case with the tests which, however, are "the key to success".
"If we want to control the epidemic, we must find the carriers of the virus," says the epidemiologist, taking the example of China or Germany who have more widely tested their population. In France, screening tests are carried out on a massive scale in centers of contamination. A "big mistake" for Catherine Hill, who estimates that 480,000 tests per week is far too little.
"The Chinese have done 2.3 million tests in ten days," adds the epidemiologist. "It's a question of organization: we need a lot more people to be able to take samples!"
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"France does not effectively seek all cases"
For Catherine Hill, we must stop focusing exclusively on "clusters". "That a carrier of the virus has infected two people he knows in less than seven days, that's what makes an outbreak," she recalls. "But the carrier of the virus which has successively infected people in the supermarket, in a café and beyond, has not created a home but has infected people who can themselves infect others", explains the epidemiologist, drawing a parallel with the situation in Spain.
Today, continues Catherine Hill, "there are 20 deaths per day in France, and two deaths per day in Spain. What are they doing that we are not doing?" She asks. "They manage, they have to test a lot more! For two deaths, they have twice as many cases per day as in France, so that means that they are looking for cases much more efficiently." For the epidemiologist, France does not effectively search for all cases, "therefore the virus continues to circulate".