With the outbreak of new COVID cases and the multiplication of contact cases, the number of tests reaches records, causing a saturation of the system.
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Do we test too much in France? Should we change strategy? These questions may seem incongruous while the Pandemic of Covid-19, restarted by the circulation of the Omicron variant, is experiencing a strong thrust. But, confronted with the very strong contagiousness of the new variant, thus to more sick people and many more cases contacts, which translates into a traffic jam, the government is considering an adaptation of its strategy. According to our sources, a reflection would be under way at the Ministry of Solidarity and Health on a “less exhaustive test policy” approach. “You have to see what can be done to lighten the weight on the test issue, abandon exhaustive monitoring for, perhaps, going towards syndromic surveillance, on samples, but this change could only be done when the Situation will be trivialized, “says the Virologist Bruno Lina, a member of the Scientific Council.
because the epidemic outbreak is there. According to the public health point France, Thursday, January 6, the incidence rate was 1,908 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for the week of December 27 to January 2, an increase of 129% compared to the previous week. To this surchar add the new instructions, which lead to a massive recourse to tests, whose number reaches a “stratospheric level”, according to Bruno Lina, “with more than 2% of the population who are tested daily”. Every day, more than 1.5 million people are tested in France.
In a released statement on Friday, the Ministry of Solidarity and Health evokes “unpublished proportions”. “Between December 31, 2021 and January 6, 2022, nearly 9.5 million tests were conducted, including 2.06 million PCR tests and 6.65 million antigenic tests,” says the department, a growth of 25% compared to the previous week. By comparison, during previous peaks, it was recognized up to more than 3 million weekly tests in December 2020, and nearly 6 million in August 2021.
“incomprehensible” diagram
Records are widely beaten, which is explained by the appeal, mandatory to access the sanitary pass and the various activities of daily life, the various tests: PCR, antigenics or autototes, with the arrival of Omicron , some are wondering about the reliability of these tests with regard to the virulence of the new variant, and challenge the strategy stopped by the government. Thus, the National Union Medical biologists denounced, in a statement, on January 6, a “new scheme for screening and driving to hold (…) incomprehensible”. “The government is asking for PCRs when it is not necessary and does not offer them when it would be useful for breaking the chain of contamination,” said his president, Dr. Lionel Barrand.
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