Emmanuel Macron had warned at the beginning of the afternoon that a new type of tests would be deployed in France by October.
The High Authority for Health (HAS), whose opinion was eagerly awaited, deemed reliable this Friday the use of saliva screening tests for the new coronavirus.
However, only for people with symptoms.
Indeed, the HAS does not recommend them on people without symptoms, in whom "we would miss more than 75%" of infections due to insufficient performance, indicated Prof. Dominique Le Guludec, president of the College of the High Authority of Health. (HAS), during an online press conference.
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran announced Thursday that this opinion was "imminent".
The saliva tests mentioned are those which consist in looking in the laboratory for the presence of the genetic material of the coronavirus from a saliva sample, an easier, faster and less uncomfortable gesture than the reference sample by swab in the nostrils.
Antigenic tests in October
Studies were launched this summer, including the Covisal study in Guyana, to check whether the virus is found in sufficient quantity in saliva for this type of test to be reliable.
The opinion of the HAS is based in particular on the Guyanese study.
Olivier Véran also announced the order for “5 million antigenic tests, which will have arrived by the beginning of October”, and to work “on a deployment strategy” of these rapid tests, without waiting for the results of the experiments launched in recent days. and “recommendations from scientific authorities”.
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