On the forecourt of the Gare de Lyon, a strange pink cube has settled.
Regularly, a woman dressed in a white jumpsuit and masked comes out to welcome those who are patiently waiting in the queue.
Since it opened on Thursday, this mobile coronavirus screening center has been able to carry out PCR tests for free.
The same was installed Gare de l'Est, for at least six months.
Three more will soon see the light of day on the forecourt of Marseille Saint Charles and Bordeaux Saint-Jean train stations on November 12 and Rennes train station on November 18.
The mobile screening center developed by Loxamed in partnership with SNCF Gares & Connexions.
CV
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It is the medical mobility company, Loxamed, newly created to participate in the fight against the coronavirus, which is at the origin of these screening boxes, called “mobiltest covid” in partnership with SNCF Gares & Connexions.
At the rate of one patient every 5 minutes, from 9 am to 5 pm, the pace is frantic for Mathilde Nabet, administrative agent, and Marie Servajean, nurse, who ensure the screenings.
These are done
"obligatorily"
by appointment, but when possible and a window becomes available, the two young women welcome an additional patient.
About a hundred marched on Thursday and tomorrow's agenda is already full.
“Today the pace was intense and Friday it may be even more.
We don't really have time to stop because as soon as a patient has passed, we have to disinfect everything and bring in the next person, ”
explains Mathilde Nabet.
“At 11 am, a patient canceled his appointment.
At 11:02, someone else had registered on his niche, ”she
adds as if to illustrate her point.
Inside, the small space is divided into two.
At the entrance, a table allows patients to fill out an information sheet if they have not already done so online.
Only the social security number is necessary to carry out the test which takes place in the second part of the box, separated by a blue curtain.
If the device is intended mainly for contact cases and people with a prescription, who are invited to come in the morning, "
anyone can register",
recalls Mathilde Nabet.
The interior of the mobile screening center installed on the forecourt of the Gare de Lyon.
CV
This is where the nurse, Marie Servajean, performs the PCR tests.
CV
"It's practical and very fast"
A godsend for Aketa, 26, who needed to get tested quickly.
“I have decided to confine myself with my family and I don't want to infect them if I am positive,” she
explains.
It is also his father who heard about this initiative this Thursday noon.
In the process, Aketa went to the Loxamed site and made an appointment for the afternoon.
“It's practical because I live nearby, in Nation, but above all it was very fast compared to the 12th or 10th century laboratories where there were no appointments available for a long time.
A laboratory at Defense even offered time slots in December, ”she
says.
A man walks up to the pink cube.
It was the pharmacy opposite that advised him to go there to try to get tested.
Mathilde Nabet suggests that he wait without being able to assure him that he can be taken care of because he does not have an appointment.
After an hour, he too can finally get tested and will get his result within 24 to 72 hours.
Read also: Greece, Sweden, Portugal ... These countries accept French tourists without PCR test
Faced with the magnitude of the new wave of coronavirus affecting France and Europe, several initiatives have emerged in France this week to strengthen the screening offer. A partnership between the Red Cross and an event company makes it possible to carry out tests in five stations in the Ile-de-France region: that of Val-de-Fontenay in Val-de-Marne, Juvisy (Essonne), Versailles Chantier (Yvelines ), Ermont (Val-d'Oise) and Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). Particularity of this screening, it is done thanks to an antigen test allowing to have the result in about fifteen minutes, specifies
Le Parisien
. It will soon also be possible to carry out a test at airports, the ADP group said in a press release on Thursday. In partnership with the Cerballiance laboratory network, a screening center will be set up on Friday at Paris-Orly airport and then, the following week, at Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Antigenic and PCR tests
“according to the destinations and medical indications”
will be offered, by appointment made online. This device is however reserved for patients with a plane ticket.
