Olivier Véran had announced it on Friday, medical biologists were only waiting for the publication of a decree. It has been done since Sunday: city laboratories can now carry out diagnostic tests for Sars-CoV-2 infection, until then reserved only for authorized hospital laboratories.
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“Sampling can be done in most laboratories, but the analysis itself will be concentrated on a few who have the technical capacity to do so”, specify at Figaro Nicolas Revel, director of the National Health Insurance Fund. Following an urgent opinion issued by the High Authority for Health, the‘decree of March 7, 2020 indeed states that “The handling of respiratory samples must be done in an LSB2 laboratory (level of biological safety requirement, editor’s note)». The level of security is therefore lowered: until then, hospital laboratories had to perform tests in level 3 laboratories, with a higher degree of containment and operator protection.
Confirm a diagnosis
The sample itself can be carried out in any health establishment, even at the patient’s home: it is a “Nasopharyngeal swab from the upper respiratory tract, or from the lower respiratory tract (sputum or bronchoalveolar fluid)”, specifies the decree. The price of the tests is set at 54 euros, 70% covered by Social Security, the rest being reimbursed by mutual funds. This is a lower price compared to that billed by hospitals under the “benchmark for innovative acts outside the nomenclature”, set at 135 euros.
The tests will be carried out for two purposes: to confirm a diagnosis of Covid-19 in a suspected patient, then twice at 48 hour intervals to certify that a cured patient no longer excretes the virus, therefore no longer has need to protect those around him. “The idea is to test all suspected cases, but there are several situations”, indicated Saturday the Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon, well aware that not all can be tested if the epidemic grows.
Follow the evolution of the epidemic
Severe cases as well as people hospitalized for another reason but showing symptoms should be tested. The same applies to “New groupings of cases” or cases appearing in “New territories”. However, performing a test will not change the care: for lack of a drug validated against Covid-19, it is only symptomatic (paracetamol against fever, respiratory aid and standard resuscitation procedures in severe cases). The interest of the test is therefore essentially to follow the epidemic as closely as possible and to be able to lift unnecessary containments.
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