This is a new step in the fight against Covid-19. Starting Monday April 12, 2021, pharmacies are allowed to sell self-test kits. As said this April 11 in Journal du Dimanche by Health Minister Olivier Véran, these self-test kits will “be progressively deployed in thousands of pharmacies all week long” and will be sold for six euros. But careful, because of a limited stock, nasal self-test kits will be difficult to find on the first days.
Covid: pharmacists are not ready to sell self-test kits starting April 12
Self-test kits are available on sale in pharmacies starting Apirl 12. Yet, pharmacists warn they are not ready to sell them when stores open at 8 a.m. this Monday: they are still waiting for competent bodies' official instructions. [Read more]
As the Health Ministry explains, this quick self-test – to made yourself with a swab put in your nose – enables to test people over 15 years of age showing no symptoms and who have not been in contact with people contaminated. “It enables to find out if one is carrying COVID-19 or not, but it only is interesting if made regularly, for instance once to twice a week”, the Ministry says as they issued a notice of this nasal self-test kit online.
Before anything else, make sure your hands are clean, washed with soap and water or hand sanitizer. Then, put the swab vertically in one nostril up to 2 to 3 cm, without pushing. No need to go too deep. Then, softly tilt it horizontally and push it just a bit until you find some resistance. Then, rotate it within the nostril.
Once you are done, dip the swab in the small tube to drop what you collected. Turn and wait for a couple of seconds. Then, pour a few droplets on the plate and wait 20 to 30 minutes to see the results.
Three options are possible: if there are two colored bands at the level of the C and T markers, then it is positive. If there is one colored band only appearing in the C control zone, then it is negative. Last but not least, if the C control band does not appear, the result is not valid. And therefore, you have to take another self-test kit.
As the Health Ministry says, in order to prevent any contamination, make sure you throw the kit items in a plastic bag and close it, before putting it in a second plastic bag before you throw it to the trash.
And what to do in the event of a positive test? The first thing is to self-isolate at home, then take a PCR test to confirm it, and contact your GP, without forgetting to keep on complying with barrier gestures.
