The retro-tracing, which will be generalized in France at the beginning of July, will make it possible to "go back higher in the chains of contamination" to identify "the moments, the places, the events" at the origin of the transmission of the Covid-19 as well. than all those who have been "co-exposed".

Until now, the objective of the tracing was to identify the contact cases of a person positive for Covid-19 by going back over a period of 48 hours for the symptomatic and 7 days for the asymptomatic.

The retro-tracing will go "further on the chain of contamination" by taking into account the 10 days preceding the identification of the disease, explained Thursday Thomas Fatôme, director general of the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam) at a press conference.

Track down the co-exposed

"This more in-depth health survey", as Pierre Rousseau, director general of the Loire-Atlantique CPAM, describes it, "will allow" to go and question the positive person on the reasons, elements or moments of contamination, more or less collective, which may have been the source of this contamination ”if it occurred outside the home. The objective is also to flush out “co-exposed” who shared these contamination events positively. With the aim of encouraging them to isolate themselves.

The device was tested for two months (April and May) in two departments, Côte-d'Or and Loire-Atlantique.

On June 1, it was effective in 17 departments and 43 more were included on June 15.

Retro-tracing will be generalized throughout France on July 1st.

This deployment is orchestrated according to epidemic circulation forecasts.

"Scientific consensus tells us that this device is only valid, effective below a circulation threshold which corresponds roughly to 5,000 cases per day," said Thomas Fatôme.

However, this has been the case since last week in France.

Other expectations

As with so-called “classic” or “prospective” tracing, Health Insurance is in charge. But with questions "readjusted", "more intrusive", "since the only question does not consist in knowing which people one could have contaminated but in which situation, in which place, at which moment", notes Pierre Rousseau. According to the data obtained during the experiment, when the contamination occurred outside the home, 10% of people are able to identify their circumstance of contamination, "as many situations that health insurance will be able to invest".

According to these same figures, to be consolidated at the national level, this identification makes it possible on average to flush out about fifteen people co-exposed (of which approximately 10% become positive). In some cases, the regional health agencies (ARS) will be able to take the lead. "Especially when the event found does not allow health insurance to identify all people by name," explains Jean-Baptiste Calcoen, director of the national tracing mission at the Cnam, citing sports competitions, cultural meetings, homes, hospitals ... They may also have to travel "to untie the tongues", when the contamination took place during a prohibited event, or "without the parents being aware", notes Pierre Rousseau.

According to health insurance, retro-tracing will also make it possible to reinforce the search for variants and to identify types of events, of more contaminating places.

"Probably in a few weeks, we will be able to say if there is more risk of being contaminated by participating in this type of event or another", according to Mr. Calcoen.

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  • Coronavirus

  • Health

  • Covid 19

  • Health Insurance