Elodie Clouvel and Valentin Belaud were present in Wuhan at the end of October 2019 for the World Military Games. - Tamas Kovacs / AP / SIPA

Screening French athletes present in October at the Wuhan World Military Games (China) would "make no sense" because the tests, so positive at Covid-19, would not indicate the date of contamination, estimated on Tuesday the secretary of 'State of the Armed Forces.

Modern pentathlon world champion Elodie Clouvel, 31, recently said in an interview with local television that she probably caught the new coronavirus during these Games organized in China from October 18 to 27, 2019 in the city that then revealed to be the cradle of the global epidemic.

[LIVE] The Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, Geneviève Darrieussecq believes that tracking down the French athletes present in October at the Military Games in Wuhan (China) would "make no sense"> https://t.co/ElG3E5RD6T pic. twitter.com/hGv7PTMair

- Le Parisien (@le_Parisien) May 12, 2020

An interview with Elodie Clouvel set fire to the powder

According to her, other athletes would also have returned sick. "To the question" should athletes be tested? », PCR (virological) tests are far too distant from the episode. The positivity is more linked to recent contamination, "argued Geneviève Darrieussecq, questioned during a hearing in the Senate. "As for serological tests, they absolutely do not indicate the date of contamination. So athletes who tested positive (…) could very well have contracted the virus a month or two ago, ”she added. "Such screening does not make sense."

"Tests would not indicate the date of contamination"

The Secretary of State reiterated that the army health service (SSA) had not received any report of illness that could "a posteriori" resemble Covid-19 from the members of the French delegation upon their return from Wuhan, at a time when the virus was still unknown.

The interview with Elodie Clouvel, which AFP was able to consult in full, includes two versions, including one where the part relating to this question has been cut. As is customary in the armed forces, athletes under military banners were asked to refer any communications on the subject to the ministry.

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