Their results are much faster than the PCR test: antigenic tests are now possible in pharmacies.
"I signed the decree which allows pharmacists, town doctors, liberal nurses, to buy, to equip themselves, to carry out these tests.
From next week they should do it ”, confirmed the Minister of Health Olivier Véran on France Info a few days ago.
Be careful, however, these tests only happen little by little and not all pharmacies will have them immediately.
While they perform less well than current PCR tests, they do not require laboratory analysis, and the result can be known in 10 to 30 minutes.
Manual.
Who can practice them?
The National Order of Pharmacists specifies that "the regulations provide that only a pharmacist can perform these tests in the dispensary for individual screening".
This pharmacist must have been trained in this practice.
How does it happen ?
As for the PCR, it takes place in the nose… A swab is inserted into each nostril, is dipped in a chemical reagent.
Then just put a few drops on the blister pack and wait.
As with the pregnancy test, the result appears as lines.
One bar, negative, two bars, positive.
Who is entitled to it?
This test is intended primarily for people who have symptoms, are under 65 years of age and have no risk factors.
Because the antigen is less reliable than the PCR test which remains the reference.
A patient can come to his pharmacist when he is asymptomatic: if it is positive, the test is reliable, if it is negative, there is doubt.
“But the more contagious we are, the more sensitivity increases.
It will be 93 to 95% if we test at the beginning of the disease, with symptoms.
Certainly, we will miss some cases, but they will be the least contagious ”, recently specified to the Parisian professor Jean-Michel Pawlotsky, virologist and head of the biology pole at Mondor
How much does it cost ?
It is free for the patient but the pharmacist invoices the test to the health insurance "at the maximum price of 8.05 euros excluding tax", according to the decree published on October 26.