Couacs in series. For several days, the SI-DEP platform, which makes it possible to enter and receive the results of a Covid-19 screening test by laboratories and pharmacies, has been saturated by a large number of seizures and attempted attacks and the application TousAntiCovid, she is having trouble again.
Health pass “invalid” despite a booster dose
Among the first problems identified: invalid health passes … despite a reminder. Indeed, if you have just received your third dose, you may have experienced it, your new QR Code no longer works. “Invalid health pass”: this is what the restaurant owner who checks your app can read, for example.
No worries, we are told, sometimes you have to wait seven days before the new QR Code is finally valid. A word of advice: keep your second dose certificate with you, which remains valid.
Expiry date of the health pass and Covid infection
Another difficulty noted, for those who have already had Covid-19: does being infected really dispense with a dose of vaccine?
The Minister of Health repeated it: an infection is equivalent to an injection. But it’s not that simple, as Véronique explains to franceinfo: “I was infected with the Covid in October 2020, I was vaccinated in May 2021. When there was the booster dose, I did that in early December. It was registered on my health pass. I noticed that there was an expiration date appearing. When I got my contact from TousAntiCovid online, I was told: ‘In our software, an infection is not an injection. So that means that I have to get vaccinated again so I would actually have four doses. It’s a mic-mac!“she denounces.
Indeed, the health authorities recognize it: the infection does not dispense with a booster. In other words, to keep a valid pass, Véronique will have to receive another dose before June. This is subject to changes in the rules according to the Directorate General of Health.
Pharmacists facing technical difficulties
With nearly 2 million tests performed per day at the moment, the SI-DEP platform, where the results are entered, is sometimes saturated. Error messages appear and pharmacists must therefore wait, which obviously delays the transmission of results.
But these dysfunctions are not only linked to the overload of work. The platform is facing “denial of service” type computer attack attempts. To put it simply, these are robots that artificially saturate the servers. This can take anywhere from five minutes to two hours.
Technicians are therefore installing new machines to quadruple the input capacity, the equivalent of 12 million possible tests per day.