The device had been put in place by the government at the end of the first confinement and placed under the leadership of Health Insurance.
The tracing of “cas contactsexposed to Covid-19 could have cost more than 600 million euros since the start of the epidemic, indicates the Court of Auditors in a report published on Tuesday, concluding that “uncertain effectivenessof the device. It was the central pillar of the strategy “test, trace, isolate“, implemented at the end of the first confinement. In just over two years – from May 2020 to August 2022 – the «contact tracing» made it possible to reach 32 million people who tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 22 million of their contacts “at risk», specifies this «audit flash».
A mass of calls, text messages or emails generated by Health Insurance, which “recruited thousandsof investigators for this purpose. If the workforce now hasbeen greatly reduced“(from 6,500 full-time equivalents in 2021 to 350 in September), the total expenses at the expense of the Sécu “could exceed 600 million euros” at the end of the year. All for “uncertain overall effectiveness“, since the effects on contamination and hospitalizations”cannot be quantified in the absence of scientific evaluation“. Efficient in establishing contact in less than 24 hours in the vast majority of cases, this device has not, however, touched “that a potentially minority partyof its target, because most of the infected have “declared no contact person».
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As for those who could be reached, “the rare elements of analysis available show partial compliance (…) with the prevention instructions“. Supposed to stop at the end of January – unless further extended by law – the “contact tracingshould at least serve as a lesson. The Court of Auditors thus calls for “design a more efficient device“, can be “activated and then deactivated quickly in the event of new large-scale epidemics».
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