The MSP of Saint Jean Saint Pierre in Narbonne, launched a mass screening on Saturday morning, which we had not seen – outside of schools in the Aude – since mid-December.
In Saint Jean Saint Pierre 40 people showed up in December, then 50 this Saturday. This is less than the 281 people who came to the first mass screening organized in Aude last August at the social center of Viguier, a Carcassonne district comparable to Saint-Jean-Saint Paul. It was just before the start of the school year in September.
Underprivileged neighborhoods highly impacted
Will volunteers for free screening be more numerous in Razimbaud, another district with a high incidence rate on Tuesday? Over a period of February 3 to 9, positive cases are proportionately very high in certain areas of the department mapped by Public Health France. In Narbonne, the Saint-Jean La Source, Pompidor and Razimbaud zones thus display an incidence rate (number of positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants) of between 500 and 1,000, against a departmental average of 177 per 100,000 inhabitants. Doctor Thibaut Perrin, coordinator at the Maison de santé pluridisplinaire de Saint Jean Saint Pierre, had already alerted a week ago in our columns: “We really need a dedicated program for this underprivileged neighborhood which could become a real viral reserve”.
From February 16, therefore, in the Narbonne districts of Razimbaud and again Saint Jean Saint Pierre, free tests will be offered by the Regional Health Agency in collaboration with the City of Narbonne. These new mass screening campaigns should also serve to raise awareness of barrier gestures and isolation in the event of infection – even if the overcrowded housing in some buildings complicates the task. In Saint Jean Saint Pierre on Saturday, the MSP “also accompanied the isolations”: the professionals were there to explain to the families the importance of isolating the person positive for the Covid, despite the promiscuity of the apartments in this district with the rates so high that one thinks irremediably of the term “cluster”.
Reinforcements by mediators
To stem this exponential increase in cases, mediators have just been trained, mainly in associations. A mobile team of “TAP” mediators from the “test-alert-protect” device of the French Rescue and First Aid Federation will be found in Razimbaud on Tuesday. Holders of a baccalaureate or a diploma in the health or social sector, these mediators carry out nasopharyngeal samples, contribute to preventive actions and contact tracing nasopharyngeal samples, always under the supervision of a health professional.
Find out more about mediators by clicking here.
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