Pharmacies can, for a few days, carry out antigenic tests which deliver a result in a few minutes.

Problem: the pharmacies are often too small.

In Saint-Omer, the town hall therefore made the chalets of the Christmas market available to pharmacists to carry out these tests.

REPORTAGE

The vaccine against the coronavirus is not yet a reality, antigenic tests remain at the heart of health policy in France.

In Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais) the town hall has even suggested that pharmacists use the chalets normally intended for the Christmas market to carry out rapid and safe tests.

Indeed, pharmacists can now perform tests that deliver a result in a few tens of minutes to relieve laboratory congestion.

On site, patients and pharmacists welcome this device.

Reportage.

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Often too small pharmacies

In Saint-Omer, the tests are indeed offered free of charge in the baroque setting of Christmas chalets, since the market is canceled.

These new devices make it possible not to mix the "usual" customers of the pharmacy and those who have symptoms of Covid-19.

Marie-Pierre Graff, pharmacist in Saint-Omer, explains: "My dispensary is small, so it really allows me to have a suitable room, apart".

So no more hot chestnuts, santons and Christmas balls.

In the queue, Isabelle has fun settling in one of these market chalets to receive a swab in the nostril.

“The garlands are a bit missing, actually,” she jokes.

Like all the other patients who have come to be tested, this mother hopes to be quickly fixed on her state of health.

She has several symptoms when she arrives, including "very, very severe fatigue," she explains.

This new screening system seems particularly effective: "I did a first test last Wednesday", explains Isabelle.

"But I still haven't had the results, so I thought of this pharmacy, which allows you to get the results in 15 minutes."

A very quick result

A few minutes later, Isabelle is therefore fixed: she is a carrier of the coronavirus.

For Marie-Pierre Graff, this rapid test is a real advantage in the fight against the epidemic, since it allows positive patients to isolate themselves quickly.

"The sensitivity a little less than that of the laboratory," she concedes, "But we still have positive cases, which means that the test is reliable."

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Most pharmacies have volunteered to perform these new tests.

Those who do not have chalets, or more generally a separate room, to build them often offer to install a barnum outside their dispensary.