Multiply by 25 in less than two months the number of tests. This is the challenge that France has launched, as detailed by Edouard Philippe on Tuesday: "We have set ourselves the objective of carrying out at least 700,000 virological tests per week". Called PCR tests, they determine using a swab at the back of the nose if the person sampled is a carrier of the coronavirus and therefore contagious. They mark the starting point for the process of identifying and isolating patients.
The objective is to be compared with the 28,000 weekly tests carried out around March 20 and increased last week to 270,000. This figure of 700,000 corresponds to the 3,000 new daily cases of Covid-19 on which the authorities are counting at the time. of the deconfinement to which must be added the "20 to 25 people who encountered them the previous days", according to the Prime Minister. 3000 patients multiplied by 25 contacts, multiplied by seven days equals 525,000 tests to be carried out each week, with a safety margin, the account is good.
"Large platforms are installed"
It remains to ensure implementation. "Each laboratory is doubling or tripling its capacities," explains Flore Rozenberg, head of the virology department at Cochin hospital (Paris XIV). We arm ourselves to do more. Test machines were made available or acquired, human reinforcements came to help us. Large platforms are installed, such as that set up by the ARS (Regional Health Agency) on a site of the AP-HP which will be able to carry out 4000 tests per day. For reagents, we do what we can. Their supply is the most delicate point. "
In Ile-de-France, ARS centralizes orders and distributes to different laboratories. France favors European or American circuits to those from China.
Professor Rozenberg adds: "The other major difficulty is all that is necessary to collect the patients and send the tests". A nurse from a Parisian sampling center confirms: “Some people refuse to be sampled, especially in nursing homes. Then, there are several sensitive points: the sample which must be carried out well, the quality of the material, the tube which must be closed correctly, the automated system. Even in a center where conditions seem optimal, 80% are usable and 20% are lost. The sampler indicates that his team "is doing the drawers at the level of the swabs": "In the beginning, it was top quality material, there it looks more like cotton swabs. It's ordered, but it has to come back. We hope it will be better managed than protective clothing. "
Serological tests, which make it possible to determine whether a person is carrying antibodies, were not mentioned by the Prime Minister. Doubts about collective and individual immunity have relegated these devices to the background. This does not prevent the State from being in advanced discussions with NG Biotech for a very massive order of boxes for rapid serological blood tests, according to a source close to the Breton company.