Covid-19: supermarkets will be able to sell self-tests “on an exceptional basis” until January 31

Large retailers won their case. Faced with strong demand, in a context of an epidemic outbreak, the government on Tuesday authorized the sale of Covid-19 self-tests outside pharmacies. Supermarkets, which have been campaigning for this measure since last spring, will therefore be able to sell these screening tools against the virus, but only “exceptionally” until next January 31, specifies the decree published in the Official Journal.

Several bosses of supermarkets had demanded to be able to sell it in April and had gone back to campaign in recent weeks, with the fifth wave of coronavirus, believing that this could constitute another weapon to fight against the spread of the virus. Some large brands even claim to already have self-tests in stock. President of E.Leclerc, Michel-Edouard Leclerc has already announced that these tests will be sold “at cost price” in its stores. “This is a service expected by our customers, just like masks and gels”, for his part, greeted the president of System U, Dominique Schelcher.

The self-tests should arrive within ten days on the shelves of supermarkets. Supply should be simplified for signs installed in countries where they are already authorized for sale, such as Germany or Belgium. Thereby, “I think there will be some in a hundred E.Leclerc centers” for “New Year’s Eve”, said Tuesday Michel-Edouard Leclerc.

For now, these tests cost around 4 to 5 euros per unit in pharmacies. A price that could drop with the arrival of this new competition.

The sale of antigenic self-tests has until now been limited to pharmacies, which campaigned to keep the monopoly, justifying themselves by their advisory role. Moreover, Philippe Denry, vice-president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Syndicates of France (FSPF), qualified this liberalization of the sale of “false good idea”. “Self-tests without support give a false impression of security and encourage false negatives”, he assured on Twitter. “Pharmacists are not there for the after-sales service”, he denounces.

“Self-tests are not just a commodity to be put in supermarkets [grandes et moyennes surfaces, NDLR]. I repeat the supervision by a health professional is fundamental. We’re not going to stop there “, abounds Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF).