The number of people infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus continues to grow in France. In an attempt to limit the spread of the virus as much as possible, the health authorities continue to investigate to understand the origin of the contaminations, but above all to avoid others, by establishing a list of people that the patients may have infected.
These are the famous "contact cases": people who have been in contact with a patient since the onset of the disease. Regional health agencies must assess the level of risk they represent, according to their proximity to the patient and the frequency of their contacts.
Who are the contact cases?
You are considered a contact case in the following situations: if you shared the same living space as the sick patient when the latter presented symptoms, if you had direct contact, face-to-face, unless a meter from the sick patient when coughing, sneezing or during a discussion, or if you are close to the sick subject in an airplane or train, or if you have been in a space confined with him (private car for example).
Obviously, you are automatically a “case contact” with your flirtations, close friends, class or office neighbors.
All identified persons are followed for 14 days from the last contact with the patient, to monitor for any appearance of symptoms. If no symptoms appear after this period, the health authorities conclude that the person does not have the virus.
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If on the contrary symptoms appear, the person must then contact 15, the number of the SAMU. The SAMU teams then ask the person a series of questions. Depending on the responses, it will then be classified as "excluded" or "suspect".
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In the latter case, the SAMU then transports the person to an infectious diseases department in a reference establishment which will carry out a diagnostic test with the coronavirus, to confirm or deny that it is Covid-19.