Healthcare workers will be able to benefit "from next week" from serological tests on medical prescription, to find out whether or not they have contracted the coronavirus, announced Tuesday the Minister of Health Olivier Véran. "The High Health Authority sent me a recommendation yesterday which allows me to consider, from the beginning of next week, to offer all caregivers in our country (...) to benefit from a prescription for a serological diagnosis "declared Olivier Véran to the National Assembly.
Tests available in hospitals and in nursing homes, but not only
These tests, which will allow those concerned to "know their state of immunity", will be available for nursing staff "at the hospital, in an Ehpad, in a medico-social establishment" but "also in the city", said the Minister. , questioned during questions to the government.
According to Olivier Véran, this measure will also be extended "to all staff working in the field of emergency accommodation". This will provide "an additional diagnostic weapon," he insisted. Serological tests can tell if someone has had Covid-19, by checking to see if they have developed antibodies. They are based on blood tests. They are distinguished from virological tests, or PCR, which allow to say that a patient is infected at the time when they are carried out.
Uncertainties about the protection offered by these antibodies
Different types of serological tests are currently available, the reliability of which is considered uneven by the health authorities. Uncertainty remains about the protection offered by the presence of antibodies against the virus.
"There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from Covid-19 and who have antibodies are immune to a second infection," warned the World Health Organization (WHO).