Paris (AFP)

After being criticized for their too long delays, the virological screening tests for Covid-19 are now delivered within 24 hours every other time, and in less than 48 hours nine times ten, according to a study by Drees published on Friday.

"The tests validated between October 12 and 18 were taken less than 24 hours previously in 52.4% of cases and less than 48 hours previously in 89% of cases", indicates the statistical service of the Ministry of Health.

And 96.7% are returned after three days, which means that only 3.3% of the results are still not known after that time.

Last Friday, Public Health France had indicated that 94% of test results were now recorded in the Sidep database less than three days after their completion, against 93% the previous week, 88% that before and only 70% mid -September.

The average timeframe for reporting results, an essential criterion for the effectiveness of the control of the Covid-19 epidemic, however stagnated last week, after several weeks of marked improvement.

Between October 12 and 18, "the times were very slightly affected by the increase in the number of tests. The median time to return the test is 1.0 days over this period compared to 0.9 the previous week", specifies the Directorate of research, studies, evaluation and statistics.

Over 1.6 million RT-PCR tests were counted last week, up from 1.3 million the previous week.

The situation varies according to the territories, but "in a majority of the departments", the median time between the sampling and the recording of the result in the SiDep database is "between 1.0 and 1.5 days", adds the Drees, who will update this data weekly.

17.7 million RT-PCR screening tests have been performed since the start of the epidemic: 2.3 million between March 1 and June 6, and 15.4 million since that date.

Between 100,000 and 300,000 tests are now counted each day, with a strong fluctuation depending on the day of the week.

The government authorized this weekend the use and reimbursement of new, faster tests, antigen tests, for people with symptoms (except those at risk of severe form of Covid-19) and in the context of operations targeted screening.

© 2020 AFP