France announces ‘large scale’ virus testing campaign

PARIS: France said on Thursday it was launching a “large scale” coronavirus testing campaign in a bid to identify any dormant infection clusters. Some 1.3 million people in the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, will receive vouchers for a virus test, Health Minister Olivier Veran told Le Monde newspaper. Even those who display no symptoms would be eligible, he said.

People who live near previous hotspots will be targeted in a bid to identify asymptomatic carriers who may be transmitting the virus without knowing it, said the minister. The tests would determine if a person is currently infected, not whether they had had the virus previously. The government will start with a pilot campaign in Ile-de-France and three other regions — between them accounting for about three-quarters of people who required intensive care for coronavirus complications. “We are in an experimental phase to see if this corresponds to what the French want,” Veran said of the testing campaign. “The experiment may be extended to other regions later.

Figures released on Wednesday showed that 29,731 people had died in the COVID-19 outbreak in France to date, though the rate has slowed to 11 deaths in 24 hours.