“Today we have more than 500,000 tests carried out per week. Which makes France, I believe, the country where the greatest number of tests per inhabitant are carried out per week, ”declared Gabriel Attal, Wednesday July 29, after the Council of Ministers.
In its last weekly report, Public Health France listed 360,956 PCR tests (sample in the nose) carried out in week 29, from July 13 to 19. The country has therefore, according to the government spokesperson, increased its screening capacity, to arrive in recent days at 500,000 weekly tests. A figure confirmed to the Parisian by the Directorate General of Health.
The United States ahead of France
But does this figure make France the country where the most tests per capita are carried out each week? With 500,000 weekly screenings, the health authorities would carry out approximately one daily test per 1,000 inhabitants.
However, according to the American site COVID Tracking Project which lists all the data related to the coronavirus in the United States, 839,868 tests were carried out there on Wednesday, July 29, or approximately 2.5 daily tests per 1,000 inhabitants. It is therefore likely that the United States is ahead of France in the number of screenings carried out per week.
In any case, this is confirmed by this graph, made from data collected by Ourworldindata, from the health authorities in each country.
Besides the United States, Portugal would also be ahead of France. This can be explained by the massive screening policy implemented by the Portuguese since the start of the epidemic. Already in April, Courrier international assured that Portugal was one of the countries in the world which tested its population the most.
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“It is a tourist country. For this reason, it is possible that they have invested in screening, ”supposes for his part Dr. Stéphane Gayet, infectious disease specialist at Strasbourg University Hospital.
However, if France is not "the country where the most tests per capita are carried out every week", as Gabriel Attal says, it would have recently overtaken Germany on this point and would be ahead of Italy and the Spain, based on data from Ourworldindata.
This performance is perhaps the result of recent efforts to expand the screening offer. Moreover, the graph below clearly shows the increase in the number of tests carried out in France, which almost doubled between the end of June (s-6) and the end of July (s-10).
Luxembourg champion
But it is Luxembourg that performs the most tests in relation to its population. On Tuesday July 28, the Grand Duchy carried out around 15 tests per 1,000 inhabitants. This is far ahead of the 2.5 daily American screenings and the French daily test for a thousand inhabitants.
Despite good momentum which has enabled it to overtake Germany, France is therefore not the country which carries out the most tests per inhabitant.
But beware, it is important to specify that not all countries list the screenings carried out on their territory in the same way. Moreover, these data can be underestimated. Thus, in France, "all the laboratories carrying out screening do not send their data", warns Doctor Stéphane Gayet.
These figures are therefore difficult to compare, but we can all the same conclude by saying that Gabriel Attal's assertion is exaggerated.
