holidaymakers and locals flock to ARS screening operations

Take his troubles patiently. This is the watchword for all those who come to benefit from the Covid-19 screening campaign launched by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Health Agency (ARS). In Biarritz, the meeting was given on the forecourt of the beach, in front of the municipal casino, from Monday 10 to Friday 14 August. With increasing success.

The first three days, the Basque Coast Hospital Center was responsible for carrying out the tests. The Biopole laboratory took over to ensure the weekend. Its director and quality manager, Anne-Sophie Defebvin, draws up the profile of the public tested: “we have all the scenarios: health professionals who are about to return to work, symptomatic individuals, contact cases, families coming back from vacation … We also have some people who come just because they’re worried. “

“It’s just necessary”

This Thursday, August 13, Raphaëlle, a young mother, came from the opening with her sons, Hugo and Léo. They waited 1h45 before being able to take the test. “I called a lab in Biarritz when I saw the line, but the first time slot I was offered was for Monday,” confides the mother. So she stayed. “The longest is the administrative registration. The test is very fast.”

This screening was obvious to Raphaëlle: Hugo and Léo must return to their grandparents in the Loire Valley, who will keep them until the end of the holidays. “I hesitated even less when I saw that the three of us have had a runny nose and a sore throat for a few days. With the people that there are in Biarritz, we were able to be exposed”, explains this mother Parisian, just coming out of a week’s vacation on the Basque coast.

At the end of the queue, Morgane and Alexis have been waiting for two hours. But the young couple are not discouraged: “for us, taking the test is just necessary.” Morgane’s best friend has contracted Covid-19. As for Alexis, he is on sick leave due to gastric problems, and must be tested to return to work.

To save time, the employees of the Biopole laboratory regularly pass through the girl to distribute forms to those present. In addition to traditional information, they must answer several questions relating to their state of health, potential symptoms, but also their recent contacts.

Niches in Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Anglet

Annie Bonneville, her husband and her two grandsons learned this morning that one of the boys had dated a friend who subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. “We were going to give him the test, just him. In the end, we thought we might have been in contact with the virus too, so we all came.”

The Bonnevilles come from the Tarn but spend a few days in their second home in Tarnos. “We did not find anything to be tested in Tarnos. In Bayonne, the labs told us that they have no place before next week”, explains Annie. The only fallback solution: screening organized by the ARS, for which there is no need to make an appointment.

Annie didn’t expect “to see so many strangers”. On the forecourt of the municipal casino of Biarritz, we speak French as well as Spanish, or even German. From 11 a.m., the queue is closed to new arrivals. The public continues to arrive, but the screening session is scheduled to end around 12:30 p.m.

If screenings are increasing in the municipalities of the Basque Country, it is “as a precautionary principle”, assures Anne-Sophie Defebvin, “because these are frequented areas.” The ARS specifies that “faced with the increase in the circulation of the virus”, it has adapted its strategy “to offer free and facilitated screening in places of tourist arrivals and stays.”

After Biarritz, the test operation will move to Saint-Jean-de-Luz the week from 17 to 21, then to Anglet from 24 to 28. All slots are to be found on the ARS website.

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