While the French government has finally agreed to use antigenic testing, other countries have been using it for several weeks.
Italy has systematized them at its airports before extending them to schools and laboratories.
Less reliable but much faster screening tests to detect the coronavirus: this is the choice made by Italy.
French Minister of Health Olivier Véran announced last week that antigenic tests would be deployed on French territory.
But among some of our European neighbors, and particularly across the Alps, these tests have been used massively for several weeks already.
Tests starting this summer at airports
From this summer, Italy did not hesitate to bet on this massive screening method at airports.
In Fiumicino airport, large signs indicate the way to follow when exiting the plane to the rapid coronavirus detection area.
Boxes are installed there to filter travelers from red zones.
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Anne, who tested negative on her arrival from Paris thanks to the antigenic tests, was able to observe the effectiveness of the method: "They put a kind of long cotton swab in our nostrils and they tell us: 'in fifteen minutes you will have them. results. It was true and I was very surprised by the organization. I had hesitated to do it in France and in fact, when I arrived in Italy, it is possible, it is easier and it is much faster".
If the result is positive a PCR test is done immediately.
Sort the contaminations
Antigenic tests are cheaper, faster and as effective as a pregnancy test.
The only problem: they are a little less reliable than PCR tests.
But for the Italian government, these tests remain the most effective way to sort out contaminations and closely monitor the increasingly worrying circulation of the virus.
Antigen testing is now widespread in schools and laboratories.
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Italy, which until the end of September had been a virtuous exception in Europe, is now facing a worrying increase in the number of contagions: it thus for the first time passed the bar of 10,000 new daily cases on Friday, and remained above this symbolic course Saturday (10.935) and Sunday (11.705).
About 150,000 tests are carried out every day in the country.