France to start selling rapid coronavirus self-tests in pharmacies from April 12

France will start selling rapid self-tests for COVID-19 in pharmacies on April 12, French Health Minister Olivier Véran said on Friday., who clarified that they will not be available in supermarkets because they must be provided by a health professional.

“It is a medical device. The advantage of pharmacies is that there are about 20,000 of them, they open almost every day and they are everywhere. If positive, the result should be confirmed by antigen test or PCR, as the sensitivity of a self-test is lower“Said the official in an interview with digital media Gross.

It is a test that can be done at home without the help of healthcare workers and is done with a suitable swab that is inserted about three centimeters into each nostril. It requires less depth in the nose than the nasopharyngeal swab for conventional RT-PCR tests and is less uncomfortable.

The minister added that they are also starting to have self-tests “in the context of operations that will be carried out in specific environments where it is more difficult to pass tests, such as abroad, in environments where precariousness is high or also among young people“.

The French High Authority for Health (HAS, for its acronym in French) estimated on March 16 that rapid antigenic self-tests could be a valid alternative.

This independent body, which has among its main missions give advice on immunization and public health, then recommended the use of these self-tests in asymptomatic people over 15 years of age.

HAS has found that these nasal tests can be used to medical or private indication, for example before a meeting with family or friends. In the latter case, he stressed that they had to be carried out on the same day or, failing that, the day before this visit.

Tonight begins the attenuated confinement throughout France

Last Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron, announced a mitigated containment for the whole country, in an attempt to stop the spread of the pandemic, which has saturated hospitals in several regions.

This measure will take effect tonight and it will be for four weeks, as the president said in a televised statement in which he extended to all of France the type of confinement that already governed 19 departments of the country.

Macron asked the French for an “extra effort” in an April which will be “difficult” avoid saturation of intensive care units in hospitals across the country, which has already happened in some regions.

“The situation is more dangerous than in autumn, because the virus is more contagious and more deadly“Because of the British variant,” he said.

Among these measures is the the closure of non-essential businesses, with some exceptions, and the ban on traveling more than 10 km.

The curfew is maintained from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., a period set two weeks ago.

On the other hand, secondary schools and institutes will close for four weeks.

The closure will start next week, when the teaching will be done at a distance in all the centers. Then will come two weeks of Easter vacation, already scheduled, between April 12 and 25.

On the 26th, kindergartens and primary schools will reopen, but high school and high school students will have another week of distance learning and will not return to class until May 5, when they will do so with capacity suited to the pandemic situation.

Macron insisted on the success of keeping schools open as much as possible, compared to other countries that have closed them for months.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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