asymptomatic tested since November 23, “follow-up” for Yves Coppieters

Health ministers decided Saturday that nasopharyngeal PCR tests would resume on November 23 for asymptomatic people who have been in contact with a positive case of the coronavirus.

In mid-October, in the midst of the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak, when the testing centers were overwhelmed, the government had decided to limit testing to people showing symptoms of the disease.

People who have been in contact with a positive case have to quarantine for now, but they can no longer be tested. A situation that is not sustainable in the long term. At the inter-ministerial conference, the Ministers of Health therefore expressed their consent for the resumption of nasopharyngeal PCR tests on asymptomatic people who have had contact with an infected person since 23 November.

►►► Also read: From 75,000 per day two weeks ago to 21,000 this Monday: how to explain such a sudden decrease in COVID tests?

“This is great news“, reacts Yves Coppieters, professor of public health at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), on the news at 19:30. “But we must not be outdated like last October. We are currently testing 26,000 people per day. We once climbed to 71,000 on October 27th. To get there, a lot of effort on the part of the laboratories is required. But what we are looking for is not a quantitative logic, it is a qualitative logic “.

In short, according to the professor of public health it makes no sense to test as many people as possible if we do not deal with the results that emerge. “This testing strategy must be effective. A person who tests positive should be able to get the test result within 24-48 hours and not within 4 or 5 days, as is always the case today. And then, we can follow the contacts and trace asymptomatic chains.“