Massive screening campaigns against Covid-19 began slowly on Monday in Le Havre and Charleville-Mézières.

On a voluntary basis, residents can go get tested for free and get their results in minutes.

REPORTAGE

A massive Covid-19 screening campaign started in Le Havre and Charleville-Mézières on Monday, on a voluntary basis.

The inhabitants of these two metropolises can therefore benefit from antigenic tests, ready in just 20 minutes, or PCR tests, free.

The objective: to better understand how the coronavirus is transmitted in the population, but also to better isolate the sick.

The beginnings of this campaign are for the moment timid, as Europe 1 has seen. 

"A citizen gesture"

If we can not yet speak of waves or long queues in front of these ephemeral screening centers, they can nevertheless absorb a thousand tests per day.

Jean-Jacques, a 67-year-old from Le Havre, went there himself as soon as it opened: "My test is negative and I'm happy to have done it. For me it's a civic gesture like going vote. Go ahead, go get tested. Before the holidays it seems important to me, "calls the 60-year-old.

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Like him, it is mainly retirees who came to be tested for this first day, but that does not worry Léo Janin, of civil protection: "In some neighborhoods, we receive more people who are on a meal break. Evenings there are more families, and on Wednesdays as well. Everyone will find a niche that corresponds to them to be welcomed ".

And this large-scale operation will last until Friday, December 18. 

"The way to protect his own"

The screening campaign has also started slowly in Charleville-Mézières, in the Ardennes, a region particularly affected by the coronavirus: "The beginnings are for the moment moderate", recognizes the mayor of the city Boris Ravignon.

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"The interesting point is that even if there were only about 200 people who were tested on Monday evening, we still have several positive cases", continues the city councilor, who intends to redouble d 'effort in terms of communication: "We will have to complete the information on this subject to convince people to go to the centers and get tested en masse. It's free, it's fast. And above all, it is. is really the way to protect your loved ones. At this end of the year period, we will meet up with those we care about the most and no one wants to pass on to them this filth that is the Covid. "