The Île-de-France ARS announced on Monday the launch of a Covid-19 screening campaign using antigenic tests, which promise faster results than PCRs, for nursing home staff in the region.
A campaign to screen for Covid-19 using antigenic tests, which promise faster results than PCR, was launched on Monday on an experimental basis on nursing home staff in Île-de-France, announced the regional agency. health.
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"As of today, we are launching a series of antigenic tests in ten nursing homes in each department of the region to verify the effectiveness of this solution, which makes 80 nursing homes in Ile-de-France which will test this protocol" , announced the director general of the ARS Aurélien Rousseau during the press conference at the police headquarters.
Experimentation phase
Asked by AFP, the ARS clarified that it was a "screening campaign on nursing home staff", not residents, "as part of the experimentation phase of the deployment of antigenic tests by AP-HP ".
"The protocols have been validated by the ARS and the operation authorized by the Ministry" of Health, we told ARS Ile-de-France, without announcing how many tests will be carried out.
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While PCR tests, which detect the genetic material of the coronavirus, have problems with timing and saturation, with results sometimes after several days, antigen tests are faster because they spot virus proteins and not do not require laboratory analysis.
For these two methods, the sample is taken through the nostrils, with a swab (long cotton swab).
Preventive screening
"We will initiate preventive screening of all professionals by keeping as much as possible to a periodicity of 14 days", added Aurélien Rousseau.
The HAS (Haute Autorité de Santé) on September 25 gave the green light to antigenic tests, thus paving the way for their use and reimbursement, but only for patients who have symptoms.
She must now give another opinion, covering people without symptoms.
More than 10,000 people have died in nursing homes in France since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, out of a total that has exceeded 32,000 victims.
According to the latest daily report from Public Health France, out of 1,340 clusters under investigation, 265 are in these accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people.