“I'd rather spit than have a cotton swab in my nose.
It hurts less!
», Launches Baptiste, 10 years old, who proudly wears his little pot with the red lid, in which he has just deposited his saliva.
Like him, they were nearly 400 students from the République elementary school in Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine) who volunteered, after parental consent, to take saliva tests this Tuesday morning.
That is to say 80% of the schoolchildren in the establishment.
To supervise and allow the samples, the town hall called on facilitators and staff from the town hall, trained a few days before by technicians from the Cerballiance medical analysis laboratory.
“The training lasted half a day.
We were explained the protocol, the labeling and two or three tips to help children produce saliva, ”explains Khaled, putting on his white coat and protective gloves.
Because even if saliva tests are less feared by children than swab samples from the nose (often unpleasant or even painful for some), coughing up enough saliva is sometimes more difficult than it seems.
“We need 1 ml of material in the jar.
We do not realize, but it makes some spitting.
To help them, they are advised to think of something they like to eat.
A candy for example.
And to stimulate the salivary glands by lightly massaging the top of the jaw ”, continues the supervisor.
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The vials are then collected by a laboratory biologist, who checks the names of the students and the amount of saliva produced before sending them for analysis.
The results will be delivered quickly, either at the very beginning of the evening or early the next morning, to allow the school to warn families in the event of positive coronavirus results, to isolate the students as quickly as possible and thus to break up quickly. the chain of contamination.
Gradually deployed in France since the schoolchildren returned from vacation, this new campaign of tests in schools should gain momentum by mid-March, with the aim of reaching 300,000 tests per week.
