with Thanks to Nicholas Thaw
A new Covid screening centre opens at the Palais des Expositions to relieve congestion in city laboratories…
To fight more actively against the Covid-19 epidemic, the main laboratories of Perpignan , CENTRE, MEDILAB and BIOPOLE have joined forces to open a large new screening centre in Perpignan.
Nearly twenty people will be on site daily to ensure the proper functioning of the establishment, located at the covered bowling alley.
During the first morning, more than 120 tests were carried out.
The centre is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. You can go there with or without a prescription to be screened.
HOW IT WORKS
It’s all very straightforward. At the entrance, agents ask you to fill in an information sheet which they pass on to the secretariat who fills in the patient’s file with the information provided.
Once this is done, a nurse or a biologist performs the PCR test in a cubicle. The ‘testee’, then leaves by a separate exit.
Of course, all measures are taken to guarantee maximum safety helped by this circuit which means that testees don’t pass each other as they come in and out, are tested in well ventilated premises which are disinfected several times a day, and have hydroalcoholic gel on hand at various key points …
Results are available after 24 to 48 hours.
Covid Foch Centre
In March, as the first wave hit, a Covid centre was set up on avenue Foch, rue Zamenhof in the former military hospital in Perpignan. This facility was particularly for people who didn’t have their own ‘médecin traitant‘ or GP and received up to two hundred consultations per day.
From Monday 9th November, this centre, run by local GPs and supported by the region, will reopen.
You should not go there to be tested. This centre is for those who are worried that they have Covid symptoms; cough, fever, unexplained migraine, loss of taste, smell…..
Once a diagnosis is made, patients will be advised on the most suitable action to take: sent to A&E, referred to an Infectious Diseases Service (Service des maladies infectieuses or SMIT), advised to isolate at home with daily monitoring, or sent to a special ‘hotel de confinement’.
