A big tear runs down Soumeya's cheek. Quickly, quickly, the little girl wipes it. Finally, this cotton swab in the nose does not hurt so much and then… you have to keep a good face in front of the girlfriends! Because the school may be deserted on this Monday morning, CE1 like it, there are several, lined up in single file on the parking lot of the Carrefour supermarket. Friday, the families of Petit-Quevilly (Seine-Maritime) learned that the classes of Pablo-Picasso closed - "as a precaution" - after the identification of two schoolchildren carrying the virus.
The agglomeration of Rouen, of which this popular city is a part, alone concentrates seven of the nineteen clusters of Normandy and 75% of the twenty or so new daily cases declared in the region. Here, the virus is circulating. Too much. To make the indicators blush and trigger the national alert threshold. So, from the commercial area to the village hall, mobile screening centers were installed to massively test the population.
"The strategy is to reach out to the inhabitants, especially those who do not spontaneously go to existing systems", summarizes Benoît Cottrelle, head of the surveillance and health security pole at the Regional Health Agency (ARS). The big news: no prescription is necessary, it's free even for asymptomatic patients!
"It's my titine , you're brave", encourages Marcelle while the biologist Alban Pichard introduces the stick into the nostril of Heidy, 7 years old. Then it will be Mathy's turn, his "big" 9 year old. A test to let mother and daughters know if the virus has entered their home. "We are young, it will be fine, but there are so many people around us: the family, the patients I have looked after ..." notes Marcelle, an energetic caregiver.
Free allows more people to come
Among the 150 screened in the morning, there is also Patricia Droalin, a 57-year-old housekeeper. She "hired" at 5 am and took a short break to take the test. "You imagine that I do not earn a thousand and a hundred. There, there is nothing to advance, no appointment to make, explains this young grandmother who will receive her results 24 hours later. "I will be reassured at that time," she breathes. Because, like Marcelle, Patricia is worried. In the metro, the bus, the stores, far too many faces are revealed. "Some even do their shopping, mask below the chin!" She exclaims, hidden under hers. The fifties cannot forget “the images” of hospitals in Paris or in the Grand-Est.
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At the Carrefour, with a ladle, only one in two customers wears the mask. And at the neighboring bakery, Brigitte Dailly, the owner, goes all-out: "The second wave, we can feel it coming. "I won't say that," says Dr. Cottrelle, of the ARS. We detect as soon as possible to avoid runaway. And what does it matter if, out of 750 screenings last week in Petit-Quevilly, only three tested positive. "We are just trying to smother the embers before they ignite," says biologist Alban Pichard. For the moment, the majority of the clusters are family. An Ehpad is also affected, a company…
Ten kilometers away, an army of cosmonauts is also at work. The village hall of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray has been transformed into a test center. The scene now acts as a reserve of visors, blouses, swabs ... Oksana, 27, called in the morning for the same afternoon, when the laboratory only offered him an appointment two days later. Cécile, she came with her husband and boys, Marley, 2 years old and Noah, 7 years old. “I worry more today than before the confinement. No, it's not over, as we hear everywhere. The virus is there, in spite of everything, ”says the thirty-something. When doctors are asked how long the center will remain open, they answer: "The time it will take! "