Lockdown exit has not been acknowledged yet, but more and more French people are being preoccupied by the Holidays. As Jean Castex required a 6-adult limit around the table for the festive dinners, some people are considering getting tested for Covid-19 before reuniting with their families for the Holidays and avoid possible contaminations. What about it, then? Bad or good idea?
"It seems a good idea" Health Minister Olivier Véran said this December 10 during a new press brief. But "there is a risk of over-protection, that the test be negative when one is not contagious yet. Danger would be that 20 people that planned to meet get tested, meet, thinking nothing can happen to them" he added. They also need to avoid "clogging up laboratories and pharmacies performing tests", he thinks. "Do not consider test as an immunity totem", he concluded.
“What we can advise people seeing their families is to self-isolate for the seven days prior to their reunion and get tested before seeing their families” Saint-Louis hospital infectious disease specialist and professor Anne-Claude Crémieux said on France Info.
Another opinion from professor Gilles Pialoux. This December 7, on France Info, the head of the infectious disease unit at Paris Tenon hospital called the French to “self-isolate a bit during the week prior to Christmas”. As for testing, he recommends getting tested ideally “48h before visiting their families”.
As for SJBM – National trade union of your medical biologists – head Lionel Barrand, he says “test is not a contagiousness passport, and this is no miracle-remedy either”.
He says priority is to comply with the health guidelines. “If you want to avoid contaminating the whole family, first you have to be very cautious for two weeks before to avoid being in incubation phase, and therefore contagious. Then, you have to be cautious at T-time, with your family, and avoid kissing and hugging for instance. […] But if you want to get tested before, alright; but you have to do so if you mainly have a doubt, if you feel like you have been contaminated because you have been in contact with someone that was not wearing a mask or if you have symptoms”, he added on France Inter.
According to an Ifop survey for medical website Odero, 94% of the French plan to keep on washing their hands before eating, 87% of them think about airing rooms several times a day, and last but not least 80% of the French will avoid physical contacts such as kissing.
For those who plan to get Covic-19 tested before the Holidays, we remind you there are two types of tests to know if you are positive or not to coronavirus, starting with PCR test. 85% reliable, it remains the “reference technique to detect Covid-19 infection” the Assuance Maladie says.
The other test? The “antigenic” test. Quicker, yet it is less reliable: between 62% and 80%. “One case in three, or even one in two is negative as the patients carry the virus. This is no safety”, Dr. Jean-Paul Ortiz says on France Inter. And this is where danger stands. Having false negatives could worsen the risk of transmission. This is what Lionel Barrand confirms. “We have false negatives, especially with antigenic tests. Therefore, it would be counterproductive to test everyone, and these very people no longer be cautious”.
As for Valérie Pécresse, she asked Île-de-France inhabitants to get massively tested not before but after the Holidays.
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