The French started 2022 by testing themselves heavily.
Nearly 12 million Covid-19 tests were carried out last week, according to figures released on Thursday by the Ministry of Health, which is a record.
The Omicron wave set off a tidal wave in pharmacies and laboratories, with 11.96 million PCR and antigen tests validated between January 3 and 9, up from 8.31 million the previous week (December 27-2 January), thus detailed the direction of research, studies, evaluation and statistics of the ministry (Drees) in a press release.
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While screening has increased very sharply among those under 16, whose weekly "test volume" has tripled from 1 to 3 million "with the start of the school year", the increase in screening - a jump of 44% compared to New Year's week - was accompanied by a new daily peak.
On January 6, 2.16 million tests were performed.
An influx weighing on test validation times
According to the Ministry of Health, this massive influx weighs on "the validation times (which) continue to increase": 93% of the results are still returned in less than 24 hours, thanks to two thirds of rapid antigenic tests, but this data drops to 78% for PCR tests carried out in laboratories.
The Drees however underlines that this slowdown could be "biased" by the congestion of the IT platform SI-DEP, confronted with "difficulties of integration of the very numerous tests".
