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Covid-19: Roubaix launches its testing campaign this Monday, the English variant in the sights

2021-01-11T07:07:40.636Z


It is the third city to organize such a screening after Le Havre and Charleville-Mézières, where the success of the operation was limited.


A vast campaign to screen for Covid-19 via PCR and antigen tests will begin this Monday in Roubaix and will be accompanied by sequencing to identify the possible presence of the British variant of the coronavirus, one of the main sources of concern at the start of the year.

To read also: Covid-19: in Le Havre, the "massive" screening will not have a follow-up

After Le Havre and Charleville-Mézières, where attendance turned out to be quite low, and before Saint-Etienne, Roubaix will be the scene of a testing campaign until January 16, during which six free screening centers without ordinance will be made available to the population.

If no quantified objective is put forward, "

we have given

ourselves

the possibility of being able to accommodate several hundred people per day and per site

", explained to AFP Jean-Philippe Dancoine, deputy in charge of health in this city. of about 97,000 inhabitants.

Two weeks after the holidays, the campaign should, according to him, allow him to know whether these have led to a further worsening of the situation, while the current data are "

rather correct

", with an incidence rate (number of new cases over seven days for 100,000 inhabitants) around 150, a far cry from the surge to more than 1,100 in October.

People who come forward to be screened will be subjected to a double test, "

an immediate antigen test and a classic PCR test, the results of which will be obtained 12 hours later

", which will allow the results of the two types of tests to be compared, details Mr. Dancoine.

"

We will know if we are in phase 3 development or not, if the antigenic tests are effective or not in the general population and if there are new strains more dangerous than what we already have

", adds Professor Philippe. Froguel, geneticist and member of the steering committee of this campaign, while the British but also South African variants of the coronavirus are causing great concern.

Indeed, "

all the positive samples will be the subject of additional analyzes to detect the possible presence of the English variant

", according to explanations from the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Hauts-de-France.

These samples will first be analyzed a second time with a PCR test at the Lille University Hospital and then "

sent to the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) for sequencing, a reference analysis to detect the English variant

".

Another massive screening campaign, using antigenic tests only and in two phases of one week each, is to begin on January 13 in Saint-Etienne.

Source: lefigaro

All business articles on 2021-01-11

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