The Covid'Mobile Bus will crisscross the metropolis of Bordeaux, to screen residents as closely as possible -

Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

  • Bordeaux Métropole has partnered with the French Blood Establishment (EFS) to offer this new service free of charge and without a prescription.

  • The mobile unit offers antigenic tests, the results of which are available within fifteen minutes.

  • While the variants are pushing through the entire territory, it is more than necessary to get tested, insists the Regional Health Agency.

One more weapon in the war against Covid-19.

Bordeaux Métropole inaugurated its mobile Covid Bus this Wednesday at Taillan-Médoc.

Loaned by the French Blood Establishment (EFS), it will travel through several towns in the metropolis, to settle in the most remote districts, and the least well served in laboratories and screening centers.

It will also be available as soon as an outbreak of an epidemic is detected.

"With the surge of variants in the region, and in particular in Gironde, it is necessary to be tested even more, and to isolate oneself if one is positive, insists the director general of the ARS (Regional health agency) Benoit Elleboode .

And the closer we are to the population, the more easily they will be tested.

We can never do enough tests, especially with these variants.

"

#Bordeaux The @BxMetro Covid'Mobile bus will crisscross the towns of the metropolis to screen residents as closely as possible and will be available as soon as an epidemic focus is detected pic.twitter.com/8ijpbytR83

- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) February 24, 2021

"An excellent initiative"

Bernard, 84, an inhabitant of Taillan-Médoc, had never been tested since the start of the epidemic.

It was when he saw the bus, installed in front of a small shopping center, that he decided to take the plunge this Wednesday.

“I have no symptoms, but then I thought it would be good to know.

Where I live, it is a problem to get tested, because you have to go to Blanquefort, or to Saint-Médard, so this bus is an excellent initiative.

"

The Covid'Mobile bus will crisscross the 28 municipalities of Bordeaux Métropole - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

"The interest is to provide people with a quick way to get tested, and in a town like Le Taillan-Médoc, semi-rural, they sometimes have to travel quite far," confirms the mayor of the city Agnès Versepuy.

This morning I saw people enter the tracing unit when they had come to the neighborhood just to buy their bread.

They would not have gone to be tested without the bus.

"

The vehicle could evolve towards vaccination

"The screening strategy, through antigenic tests, allows free and non-prescription access to sites close to the population, with an almost immediate result, thus offering better observation of the epidemic while helping to break the chains of transmission," explains Bordeaux Métropole.

It is in this context and more particularly vis-à-vis sectors at high risk of the epidemic spreading (sensitive neighborhoods and / or sites, etc.) and those where the screening offer of health professionals is greater. reduced, that a mobile screening solution was found with EFS.

"

The vehicle is equipped to perform antigenic tests, and gives the results in about fifteen minutes.

“This mobile device could evolve towards vaccination as soon as the need is precisely confirmed and after authorization from ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the prefecture” adds Bordeaux Métropole.

Seven towns in the metropolis have so far wished to be part of this system.

The “Covid'mobile” bus will be present in each of these cities from 10 am to 3 pm.

Info on bx.met.ro/covid-19 or on 05.56.99.74.74

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  • Covid 19

  • Aquitaine

  • Coronavirus

  • Bordeaux