• The government had announced in early August that the so-called “comfort” Covid-19 screening tests are no longer free.

  • They are now the responsibility of unvaccinated people who wish to obtain their health pass in this way.

  • As a result, in pharmacies, the number of tests performed has fallen since Friday, as

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"The antigen tests?

Yes, we do, it's 25 euros ”.

Under her barnum located in front of the window of the Battino-Borgel pharmacy, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, Eden, a laboratory technician, informs a couple of Spanish tourists.

But this Tuesday, candidates for screening are rare.

Since October 15, comfort screening tests are no longer free.

For unvaccinated people who, until then, were regularly tested to have their health pass, now, it is no longer the Vitale card that must be taken out, but the wallet.

Forget the long queues observed in front of pharmacies when the health pass came into effect.

Under the barnums of pharmacies in the capital, there are no crowds.

"We do half the tests", "we are ten times less"

At the beginning of August, the government announced the imminent end of free PCR and antigen tests known as "comfort". A rule change that came into effect last Friday and has almost instantaneous effect. “So far, on Saturday, we had done more than a hundred antigenic tests, but this Saturday, we did half as much, notes Isabelle, pharmacist at the Battino-Borgel dispensary. We continue to screen foreign tourists, who need a negative test to return to their country and for whom the tests have been paying for a while. The information has been relayed well, people know when they have to pay or when it is taken care of ”.

On the other side of the window, Eden is waiting for the screening candidates. “I started in August. At the beginning it was very crowded, at least 120 people every day. At the start of the week, they are barely forty during the day. We can see that those who used to resort to comfort tests are less inclined to do so now that it pays off ”. Since Friday, "we have observed in pharmacies a drop of 40 to 50% of screening tests," confirms Gilles Bonnefond, spokesperson for the Union of Unions of Community Pharmacists (USPO).

A few streets further on, at MaPharmacie, a small dispensary located a stone's throw from the Place de la Bastille, the fall was even more drastic.

“We did a lot of antigenic tests, but since Friday, we've done ten times less!

This weekend, we only did two or three antigenic tests, against thirty the previous weekend, explains Nadia, preparer on site.

Until now, we had almost only unvaccinated people who came to be tested to have their health pass, with every week a stronger demand as the weekend approaches, to enjoy the restaurants and terraces ” .

"At the time when the winter epidemics restart"

In the window of MaPharmacy, a sign indicates that it is possible to perform a self-test there under the supervision of the pharmacist. But it should soon be withdrawn. Because if it was possible since August to obtain his health pass in this way, this has not been the case since Friday. Certainly to complicate the life of those who are reluctant to vaccination and encourage them to take the plunge. This device has never found its audience. Sold at a unit price of around 5 euros, it was shunned by the unvaccinated, who preferred the free antigen test. “We didn't do much, but now we don't do it at all. This has no interest for people now, "continues Nadia who, since Friday, has not had" yet any patient come to be tested on medical prescription ".

"The timing is very badly calculated: the end of the support of the tests for all falls when the winter epidemics restart and risk masking cases of Covid-19, laments Gilles Bonnefond. And the communication is not good either: to say that the tests are paying is false, they remain free, except for unvaccinated adults and without a prescription. So keep getting tested if you have symptoms! ", Insists the pharmacist, who" fears a rebound in the epidemic. Obviously, we can understand that a person has to pay for their test when they want to have their health pass to go to a restaurant or see a football match. The problem is when these unvaccinated people have symptoms and they need to see their doctor first for a prescription.Complicating and lengthening the screening process risks discouraging more than one from taking the test ”.

For the pharmacist, "it would be necessary to be able to detect without a prescription any person presenting symptoms of Covid-19, because the goal of early detection remains to break the chains of contamination.

The few smart people who would be tempted to get tested every three days at the expense of the Social Security would for their part be quickly spotted, "said Gilles Bonnefond, who calls for" to take stock of this measure in the next fifteen days ".

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  • Health pass

  • Screening

  • Covid 19

  • Pharmacy

  • Health

  • Coronavirus