The prefect of the region wants the 210,000 students of the Grand Est to be tested before their departure for the All Saints holidays.
Josiane Chevalier also wants these so-called "rapid" antigenic tests to be able to be deployed in nursing homes.
The Grand Est will carry out a campaign of 400,000 "rapid" antigenic tests targeting mainly students before their departure for the All Saints holidays, announced Friday the prefect of the Region, Josiane Chevalier.
"We were able to acquire 400,000 of these tests" which give "a rapid result in about thirty minutes," said Josiane Chevalier during an online press conference.
"This is an experiment," said the prefect, while the High Authority for Health (HAS) said Friday "favorable" to the use of these tests, faster than the reference test RT -PCR, as part of targeted screening operations (universities, nursing homes, etc.).
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Test 210,000 students before the All Saints holidays ...
"Our goal is to offer these tests" to 210,000 students in the Grand Est "before they leave on vacation," she insisted.
The first objective, "is to offer it in universities", continued Josiane Chevalier, specifying that the departmental delegations of the Regional Health Agency of the Grand Est (ARS), will identify "the places where it can take place ".
"Our priority objective today" is, "before October 24 and the departure of the students", to offer these tests "to all the establishments which would like them and which will be able" to carry them out.
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... before nursing homes and perhaps emergency services
"Our second objective is also to use them in nursing homes, this time for professionals returning from vacation to prevent the virus from entering" these establishments, continued Josiane Chevalier.
The question also arises of using them in the emergency services to determine "Covid and non-Covid patients", added the prefect.
"The virus is still actively circulating" in the Grand Est, where the contamination figures remain however better than elsewhere in France, even if the trend is on the rise, warned Josiane Chevalier.
The region was the first to be hit hard in the spring.
According to the ARS, 851 new cases had been identified Thursday in the Grand Est.