What conclusions can be drawn from the massive screening campaign which ends this Saturday, January 16 in Roubaix? If few inhabitants have been screened, caregivers remain positive.
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This Saturday January 16 marks the end of the “massive screening“of the city of Roubaix which took place from January 11 to 16. While it is almost 4:30 p.m., and in the Watremez room, one of the six screening centers in Roubaix, the doors will soon close, the question remains intact: what lessons can be drawn from this operation, one of the first three in France?
1. A target of 10% far from being achieved
By setting up six screening centers capable of accommodating up to 800 people per day each, the objective was clear: to screen 10% of the 97,000 inhabitants of Roubaix. “I don’t know the numbers for that day, explains Doctor Jean-Philippe Dancoine, assistant for health and social affairs for the city of Roubaix, but we will have a relatively low participation rate, around 6 to 7%“.
Today, the subject of concern is no longer screening, but vaccination. However, this is a serious mistake.
How to explain this little participation? “Mistrust, time, and above all, interference with vaccination “, analyzes the deputy mayor of Roubaix. “Today the subject that worries, it is not any more the screening, but the vaccination. However, it is a serious mistake, because the vaccination will have no effects for months. We must show people that screening is important. Being screened is a civic gesture “.
This forty-something who came to be tested today deplores the partially empty room: “It’s unfortunate that we don’t realize the usefulness of screening. We still need to raise awareness. “
2. Make an inventory at a time T
Even if the objective of 10% of the population screened in this city north of Lille is far from being reached, the campaign has made it possible to stop a hundred chains of contamination. “It’s always that“, act the doctor Dancoine.
For the caregivers of the Watremez center, this campaign also made it possible to make an inventory at a given moment, to be able to answer the question: was there an epidemic rebound following the end of years ? For the deputy mayor, the answer is clear. “Roubaix and the Métropole de Lille are not so far affected in a very significant way by the virus, which can change at any time. The viral incidence is relatively low.”
The operation also made it possible to search for the presence of the English variant. And the results will be known in a week.
3. A local place to ask questions to caregivers
Another point noted: for Dr Noara Allouche, this campaign has created a space for dialogue between health professionals and residents: “The people who came to be tested were very satisfied, and above all reassured“. Because the participants also took the opportunity to ask questions of health professionals, and”frequent questions remain about the vaccine“specifies the general practitioner.
4. A dress rehearsal before the vaccination?
The caregivers of the Watremez ward underline, at the end of the day, “good times, and good collaboration ” between the different trades involved in the operation. In a sense, this experience was worth “general repetition” for Jean-Philippe Dancoine: “We have been able to show that we were able to support the regional health agency in screening, and that logistically, we could set up screening structures which could soon become vaccination centers..”
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