Optipharm, a neighborhood pharmacy just opposite Wembley Park Underground in North West London. “ Free tests? Yes, we have plenty ”, assures the saleswoman, a young woman veiled behind the plexiglass window of the dispensary. Above her, a shelf full of boxes of seven doses stamped “Covid-19 self-test”. ” Why do you need it ? ” We provide a boat argument – keep your family safe. “No problem, how old are you?” “ These will be the only formalities necessary to obtain – without paying anything – this rapid saliva test kit.
Since the 9 April, the British government makes these packs bought by the millions available free of charge from Chinese suppliers, and encourages the asymptomatic population to test themselves twice a week. The post office sends them on request and 90% of English pharmacies had them by April 20. Massive tests are considered an essential complement to the vaccination campaign in order to detect the many asymptomatic positive cases and to contain future epidemic foci, in particular those linked to the circulation of new variants.
Cotton swab rubbed four times well at the back of the throat, ten times in one of the nostrils: the negative or positive result appears in less than half an hour on a small bar resembling a pregnancy test. It is then enough to scan a QR code giving access to a government site operated by the NHS – the British public health service -, and to transfer it there.
“We manage on our own”
The tests were made available to schools as soon as they reopened on March 8, after two months of total confinement, and have since been massively adopted by establishments (from college), where teachers and students test each other for most of it twice a week. “We first did three tests at school in March to show us how to proceed. Since then, we’ve been doing our own thing at home. The school does not force us to do them, but is very insistent that we do not forget to report the results to both the school and the NHS. It’s rather reassuring ”, judge Alice Prost, student in 1re at the Lycée Winston-Churchill, a Franco-British establishment in West London.
This routine takes less quickly in professional circles: it must be said that, in the service sector, many companies have not yet recommended a return to the office. “Not before June”, says the employee of a major European bank, if the health situation remains encouraging. As of April 27, the United Kingdom has recorded only 17 deaths linked to Covid-19, and 2,675 additional infections. Hospitals were emptied: only 1,608 infected patients were hospitalized across the country. “ We all did a quick saliva test before we could reopen our terrace to customers [à partir du 12 avril], but since then, nothing has been asked of us ”, testifies one of the salesmen of the bakery Bread Ahead, at the foot of the Wembley stadium.
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