French Health minister Olivier Véran delivered in an interview with Le Monde the government’s action plan to avoid a second epidemic wave in France. He says they must “prepare the country to all these hypotheses”.
First, the minister speaks about a massive testing campaign to be launched soon in Ile-de-France in order to “define likely sleeping clusters”. The health minister adds: “About 1.3 million people living in thirty cities in Ile-de-France will get ‘vouchers’ from the Health insurance system proposing them to go get a virologic test in any public or private laboratory, even though they have no symptom”.
“This massive campaign applying to all inhabitants will target territories near clusters identified, where there is a viral tank, with asymptomatic people, who can spread the virus without knowing it” he says.
By the way, the government has started massive testing. “This week, about 250,000 tests have been performed, about 99% of them were negative, which shows we are widely searching. We are holding systematic testing, “barnums” in cities where the virus is still around, even though minimal. Each and everyone can show up and be tested” the health minister says. And this testing policy also applies to places targeted, favorable for the spread of coronavirus, such as slaughterhouses.
Another point of the government’s strategy to avoid a second wave, the reinforcement of the hospital means: “We have acquired many respirators, we are strengthening a domestic stock of intensive care medicines, and by the end of summer, we will have more medicines on the shelf that we have used during the first wave” Olivier Véran says.
There will be much more beds in intensive care units: “Next, and to make sure we can face a likely second wave this Fall, we have decided to fit at least 12,000 beds in hospitals’ intensive care units, and admit 300,000 cases in ICU”.
