This authorization, announced at the end of December for one month “exceptionally”, will finally be extended by two weeks.
Le Monde with AFP
The self-surface sale of the autototes, which was to stop at the end of January, will be extended by two weeks until February 15, according to an order published Saturday, January 22 in the Official Journal.
“Whereas the retail authorization, exceptionally, autototes outside pharmacies’ offlicines made it possible to cope with the very high demand,” the executive held that “the sustainability of the strategy screening, in an intense circulation of the Omicron Variant (…) involves extending once the duration of this exemption of fifteen days, until February 15, 2022, “says the decree.
The authorization, which had been announced at the end of December “on an exceptional basis, had provoked the anger of the pharmacists who had so far had the monopoly of the sale of the autototes. In particular, they accused the supermarkets of being responsible for the breaks of stocks in some pharmacies.
With the arrival of the Omicron Variant, the incidence exploded in France, as in many other countries, and leads to an unprecedented increase in the number of tests carried out.
In January, the cost of testing, which includes PCRs, antigenics and autototes under certain conditions, will be 1.5 billion euros, recalled Saturday on FranceInfo the Minister Delegate to Public Accounts, Olivier Dusopt, compared with 6.9 billion euros for the whole of the year 2021.