Do not leave anyone on the side of the road.
This is the goal assigned by the director general of the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam), Thomas Fatôme, while many French people still do not manage to get vaccinated.
In exclusivity, he also presents us the experimentation of a new type of tracing of cases of Covid-19.
Since this Saturday, vaccination is open to people over 70 years old.
What about the over 75s who still haven't been able to get vaccinated?
THOMAS FATOMA.
People over 70 can now make an appointment to be vaccinated, but there are still just over 3 million people over 75 who have not been able to do so.
Our goal is not to leave them on the side of the road.
In addition to their individual procedures, their vaccination will be based on two pillars: on the one hand, the establishment of a dedicated telephone number, which they can call from next week to obtain an appointment.
And on the other, by crossing the data available to Health Insurance, we will identify those who have not yet been vaccinated, and call them to suggest that they do so, as the President of the Republic wished. .
This "phoning" system is already carried out with precarious elderly people, in certain areas such as Essonne, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-d'Oise, Côte-d'Or, Jura, Haut- Rhine, Bas-Rhin and Corrèze.
The idea is to extend this system to the whole of France and to ramp up from next week.
How do those you have already called react?
Their reception is very positive and they are also often surprised.
They sometimes tell us that they intended to be vaccinated, but later, or that they gave up because of lack of available slots.
Our appeal often clicks, we meet very few refusals.
Our goal is not to convince the refractory, but to help the volunteers to find an appointment.
And thanks to this type of operation, we see for example that the rate of people over 75 years of age vaccinated in Seine-Saint-Denis is now the same as in the rest of France, around 50%.
What will be the role of Health Insurance in setting up vaccinodromes?
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We already manage a few centers, especially those that are in our health examination centers.
We have made proposals to pilot mega vaccination centers, for example, in Occitanie, New Aquitaine and the Grand Est.
The idea is to adapt locally to needs.
The installation of a mega center, for example in a metropolis, will obviously take into account the already existing offer.
Thomas Fatôme recalls that the Cnam offers “individual support to patients who need to be supported” ./AFP/Phanie
You are launching an experiment on retro-tracing, which is also called "Japanese-style tracing", what does it consist of?
Since Thursday, and until April 30, we are testing this method in two departments, Côte-d'Or and Loire-Atlantique.
Until now, contact tracing consisted of calling positive cases to ask them for the contact details of people they had met after their contamination, in order to isolate them as well.
With retro-tracing, we go back and ask positive people about the very moment of their contamination.
We ask them if they have an idea of where they may have been infected, during a professional meal without a mask for example, or a meeting without respecting barrier gestures.
From these responses, we identify the events and circumstances during which there was contamination.
And then we ask everyone who participated to isolate themselves and get tested.
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It has long been known that this method is effective.
Why didn't you launch it earlier?
To work, this technique requires that the circulation of the virus is not too important.
This is why we are experimenting with it today in areas less affected by the epidemic.
The idea is to test this tool today so that it can be deployed as soon as the circulation of the virus has slowed down sufficiently.
Not to replace the classic tracing, but to complete it.
Some people rightly believe that the contact case tracing mission has been a failure.
Is it because the epidemic has gotten out of hand?
The effectiveness of "contact tracing" is not easily perceived since by definition we avoid contamination.
And those that do not take place are not counted!
Our work is not easily measured when we are currently dealing with nearly 100,000 cases every day!
Then, from the start, we have known that “contact tracing” is only one of the levers among others, along with barrier gestures and braking measures.
But it is important to remember that we have helped slow the epidemic.
In addition, we provide individual support to patients who need to be supported.
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In this regard, what conclusions do you draw from the home visits by nurses offered to people who test positive for Covid-19?
20% of patients accept this help, and, in 90% of cases, they have found it useful, according to a study conducted with the Institut Pasteur.
In addition to very practical advice, the nurses also offer tests to the people in the household, which is appreciated.
Last week alone, 20,000 visits were made, for a total of 120,000 since the system was put in place in January.
And how many sick leaves have been directly downloaded by contact persons since January?
We have 20,000 teleservice uses per week, and nearly 4,000 per day.
Most importantly, we now know that one in three people using this device then tests positive for the virus, which shows that we have hit our target.
