One in two virological screening tests for Covid-19 are now delivered within 24 hours -

Enric Fontcuberta / EFE / SIPA

France is catching up.

After being criticized for being too long, PCR virological screening tests for Covid-19 are now delivered within 24 hours every other time, and in less than 48 hours nine times ten, according to a study by Drees published on Friday .

"The tests validated between 12 and 18 October were taken less than 24 hours previously in 52.4% of cases and less than 48 hours previously in 89% of cases," explains the statistical service of the Ministry of Health.

And 96.7% are returned after three days, which means that only 3.3% of the results are still not known after that time.

The deadline for delivering results, an essential criterion

Last Friday, Public Health France had indicated that 94% of test results were now recorded in the Sidep database less than three days after their completion, against 93% the previous week, 88% that before and only 70% mid -September.

The average timeframe for reporting results, an essential criterion for the effectiveness of the control of the Covid-19 epidemic, however stagnated last week, after several weeks of marked improvement.

Over 1.6 million RT-PCR tests counted last week

Between October 12 and 18, “the times were very slightly affected by the increase in the number of tests.

The median time for the test to be returned is 1.0 day over this period against 0.9 the previous week, ”says the Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics Department.

Over 1.6 million RT-PCR tests were counted last week, up from 1.3 million the previous week.

The situation varies according to the territories, but "in a majority of the departments", the median time between the sampling and the recording of the result in the SiDep database is "between 1.0 and 1.5 days", adds the Drees, who will update this data weekly.

Reimbursement of antigenic tests

17.7 million RT-PCR screening tests have been performed since the start of the epidemic: 2.3 million between March 1 and June 6, and 15.4 million since that date.

Between 100,000 and 300,000 tests are now counted each day, with a strong fluctuation depending on the day of the week.

The government authorized this weekend the use and reimbursement of new, faster tests, antigen tests, for people with symptoms (except those at risk of severe form of Covid-19) and in the context of operations targeted screening.

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  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Public health

  • Screening