The tracing of “contact cases” exposed to Covid-19 could have cost more than 600 million euros since the start of the epidemic, indicates the Court of Auditors in a report published on Tuesday, concluding with “the uncertain effectiveness” of the device.
It was, however, the central pillar of the “test, trace, isolate” strategy, implemented at the end of the first confinement.
In just over two years - from May 2020 to August 2022 - "contact tracing" has made it possible to reach 32 million people who tested positive for coronavirus and more than 22 million of their "at risk" contacts, specifies this "flash audit ".
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A mass of calls, texts or emails generated by Health Insurance, which has “recruited thousands” of investigators for this purpose.
If the workforce has now "been greatly reduced" (from 6,500 full-time equivalents in 2021 to 350 in September), total expenditure at the expense of social security "could exceed 600 million euros" at the end of the year.
Most of the infected have not declared any contact cases
All for “uncertain overall effectiveness”, since the effects on contamination and hospitalizations “cannot be quantified in the absence of scientific evaluation”.
Effective in establishing contact in less than 24 hours in the vast majority of cases, this device has however only affected "a potentially minority part" of its target, because most of the infected have "declared no contact person" .
As for those who were able to be contacted, “the rare elements of analysis available show partial compliance (…) with the prevention instructions”.
Supposed to stop at the end of January – unless further extended by law – “contact tracing” must at least serve as a lesson.
The Court of Auditors thus calls for “designing a more effective device”, which can be “activated and then deactivated quickly in the event of new large-scale epidemics”.