Louise Sallé, edited by Solène Delinger
More supported by children than PCR and antigen tests, saliva tests have disappeared from schools since the start of the January school year. The Ministry of National Education has indeed suspended the saliva test campaigns because their results needed to be analyzed in laboratories, which are currently totally overwhelmed.
Faced with the health protocol that has just been lightened in schools, parents ask themselves a question: where did the saliva tests go? More supported by children, these tests have nevertheless disappeared from schools since the start of the January school year. The Ministry of National Education has suspended the saliva test campaigns because their results needed to be analyzed in laboratories, which are currently totally overwhelmed.
Saliva tests are PCR tests
“Saliva tests are PCR tests. It is exactly the same material that is used when doing a classic nasopharyngeal PCR test. On the other hand, self-tests and antigenic tests cannot be carried out on saliva “, explains Lionel Barrand, president of the union of medical biologists, on Europe 1.
A “torture session”
Parents of students are asking to reintroduce these PCR and saliva tests in schools because they are more supported by the children. “We don’t know if we are doing well or not well. The children are in pain. They are not at all comfortable with it. Me neither. Obviously, it is painful. It becomes a bit of a torture session. in the morning before arriving at school. I find it really excessive to make them undergo that “, testifies Lisa, mother of twins in class of CE1, in Seine-Saint-Denis.
The parents’ federation has placed, at the top of its demands for the strike day tomorrow, the resumption of saliva tests at school.