When she tries to connect, the same message appears: “Platform temporarily unavailable. Strange, thought Émilie who, like a large majority of French people, could not imagine celebrating Christmas without a negative sesame. A few hours before Christmas Eve, the young woman ended up returning to the pharmacy in her neighborhood, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. "Can't get your results?" It's normal, there is a national bug, ”explained the pharmacist, lifting the mystery. This Friday, December 24, the French, in search of a last-minute screening, found themselves in the galley, unable to access the Sidep platform, which allows health professionals to enter the results of antigenic tests and PCR to generate a QR code.
Joint, the Ministry of Health is reassuring: "The influx is important, which sometimes leads to a slowdown of the site but it is remedied each time.
If everyone wants to be reassured quickly, it suffices to wait fifteen minutes in front of the pharmacy to have their results.
"It must be said that demand is exploding: this Thursday, 1.3 million PCR and antigen tests were carried out in the country, already causing strong slowdowns.
"We understand that there may be some tension but the platform works," continues the ministry.
An extremely high number of positive results
In the outskirts of Lyon (Rhône), in Bron, pharmacist Anne-Sophie Malachane has not been able to connect since the lunch break. “The platform is saturated, there are too many tests. »Consequence, impossible to generate a QR code. "But we call back the patients to tell them if they are positive or negative, if necessary, for the passengers who take the train or the plane, we can give them a paper certificate with the pharmacy stamp. "
This is not the first time that there has been some malfunction.
"It doesn't surprise me, as usual," exclaims François Blanchecotte, national president of the Syndicat des biologistes.
The same thing happened last Christmas.
»In Tours, his lab is overwhelmed.
“We do 3,000 PCRs per day, including 10% antigens.
»How can patients who have PCR retrieve their results?
Unless you go to the lab at the last moment before they close, it's impossible ... "Anyway, it's too late for New Years Eve, we stopped doing it for this day of December 24, we don't only antigens, we will resume the PCR on Sunday.
"And the number of positives is extremely high:" 20 to 30% of patients!
"
