Clichy-sous-Bois (France) (AFP)

"I passed by chance": dozens of people were tested for free and without appointment Friday in a mobile center installed in Clichy-sous-Bois (Seine-saint-Denis), a new operation carried out in one of the districts Ile-de-France.

"We are going to take the sample, you have to put the mask back on," announces a nurse in a blue overcoat, under one of the two tents installed at the foot of the ramshackle buildings of the city of pointed Oak, emblematic district of the mal- accommodation in France.

All day long, men and women, sometimes coming with their children, lined up in front of this barnum, respecting the white marking painted on the ground to ensure physical distance. Almost all of the available stock, i.e. 150 tests, was used, according to the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency, which is piloting this first.

The device is part of the deconfinement strategy aimed at identifying and isolating patients with coronavirus. It mobilizes doctors and samplers from the AP-HP, in order to "widen access to tests to a larger population, in particular among people who have less good access to the care system", specified the ARS.

It will be tested over the next few days in other towns in Ile-de-France, notably in Seine-Saint-Denis.

"I passed by chance, I live in the neighborhood," says Mohamed, 43 years old. Sitting on a chair, he is getting ready to be taken care of after "an hour in line", a necessary wait in order to "reassure the family", he says.

Under the tents, a doctor and two nurses collect the patient's information, then two other nurses are responsible for carrying out the test using a swab, a kind of long cotton swab inserted into the nose.

"It's very fast! I'm brave so it's okay, but yes it hurts a little bit anyway. It's not pleasant", admits smiling Prescilia, 28 year old mother from Villemomble on the advice of her doctor because it has some symptoms that may suggest coronavirus.

"I think it's really good to have set up this initiative to allow everyone to be able to access it and that everyone can do it, without necessarily a prescription," appreciates the young woman, impatient of get his results on Monday.

If patients test positive, additional management and investigations will be carried out.

- "Convenient" -

"If everyone takes the test, it's better, because this disease, if we have it we can infect everyone", recalls Daiwoyé Traoré, who himself had been waiting "for a long time" to be done screen.

According to Santé Publique France, 934 people have died from the coronavirus since the start of the epidemic in Seine-Saint-Denis. This assessment makes this department of 1.6 million inhabitants, the poorest in metropolitan France, one of the most affected by the virus.

In a study published in mid-May, the Ile-de-France Regional Health Observatory explained this phenomenon by a series of factors linked to precariousness, including housing conditions favoring the circulation of the virus and higher rates of chronic diseases. to the national average.

To this list is added a chronic deficit of general practitioners.

In the queue, 55-year-old Georgina says she wanted to make a medical appointment but "found no one" available. This "practical" screening is, for her, "a way to come and fix myself to know if I was infected or not", after having been sick in March, without being able to incriminate the coronavirus with certainty.

"The question of accessibility to care is asked everywhere, all the time, whether in a crisis or not," said Emmanuel Devreese, project director at AP-HP, present on site. Reaching out to the populations furthest from the health system, "it may also be the health of tomorrow".

© 2020 AFP