The large-scale experimental testing campaign aimed at identifying sleeping clusters
began Monday, June 29 in Île-de-France, where residents of 32 municipalities will be able to benefit from free screening, announced the Regional Health Agency (ARS).
As part of this operation, announced last week by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, 1.3 million people in total will receive health insurance vouchers offering them to go for a virological screening test (PCR
).
These tests can be carried out in any public or private laboratory. If positive, serological tests will be offered to find out if the contamination is old or recent
, the director general of the ARS, Aurélien Rousseau, told AFP.
Six departments concerned
According to the health agency, 32 municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants have been selected for this vast campaign. Some have already been the subject of ad hoc operations organized by the ARS in recent weeks, others have not.
Of the 32 municipalities, eight are in Seine-Saint-Denis (Gagny, Bobigny, Stains, Bondy, Drancy, Le Bourget, Epinay-sur-Seine, Sevran) and eight in Val-d’Oise (Goussainville, Garges- lès-Gonesse, Cergy, Argenteuil, Bezons, Gonesse, Sarcelles, Villiers-le-Bel).
These two departments are among the most affected by the coronavirus epidemic.
The campaign will also concern Val-de-Marne (Villejuif, Limeil-Brévannes), Hauts-de-Seine (Colombes, Nanterre, Gennevilliers, La Garenne-Colombes), Yvelines (Mantes-la-Jolie, Les Mureaux, Limay , Mantes-la-Ville, Trappes, Elancourt), Essonne (Grigny, Evry) and Seine-et-Marne (Melun, Montereau-Fault-Yonne).
Poor people hit hardest
According to the ARS, three criteria were used to establish this list: an epidemiological criterion (contamination rate higher than the national average); a criterion for access to screening (proportion of tests carried out lower than the average); and a criterion linked to the economic and social situation of the municipality.
This socio-economic factor is important
car we know that the epidemic has hit the territories more strongly in recent months with poor populations
, underlines Aurélien Rousseau.
At this stage, the Parisian districts were not included in the list because of their demographic weight and the organization of several barnums on the public highway, according to the ARS. But new territories could be affected by the operation, if it proves successful.
According to Olivier Véran, this campaign very large
aims to identify sleeping clusters
, namely territories where there is a viral reservoir, with asymptomatic people, who can transmit the virus without knowing it
. We are currently at the experimentation stage […]. This experiment could then be extended to other regions
, warned the Minister.
– .
