PAlmost 30 million Covid-19 screening tests were performed in December. Vaccinated French people, fearing to contaminate a fragile loved one or not -vaccinated during the holidays, took their precautions. As a result, the vast majority of PCR or antigen tests carried out last month were reimbursed (comfort tests for the unvaccinated being paid). The cost for Social Security is exorbitant: one billion euros, and this, for the month of December alone, reveal The echoes Tuesday January 4.
The very large number of tests carried out is explained by the holidays (7 million tests carried out during Christmas week alone), on the one hand, but also by the surge of the Omicron variant, while the epidemic wave of the Delta variant n is still not fallout. If, from the point of view of the health crisis, the figures are worrying, the millions of screening tests have added an economic dimension to it.
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A test costs less today
Economically, a bill of one billion euros is very heavy, especially since the State had planned a test budget of 6 billion euros, but for the whole year. But it could have been worse. A PCR or antigen test costs less today than in 2020. As pointed out The echoes, at the end of 2020, the average cost of a test was 61 euros. It is now 36 euros.
