The hunt is intensifying. While to date, 19 cases of the British variant have been spotted on national soil, this number could more than double, after the discovery, yesterday, in Marseille, of an “extended family cluster” according to the terms of the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône.
Thus, among a French family of five, residing in the United Kingdom and coming to Marseille for the holidays, a case of the British variant was identified by the IHU Mediterranean Infection of Marseille after a test carried out on December 31, specifies the Regional health agency (ARS).
Then, 45 contact people were identified and 23 people tested positive for Covid-19. Additional analyzes are now underway “to determine whether it is the variant of Covid-19 from the United Kingdom”, adds the ARS which speaks of “a probable family cluster”.
The Agency is also continuing “its investigations to identify other possible contact cases and allow them to be detected”.
In a press release, the new mayor of the city, Benoît Payan (PS), confirmed the existence of this cluster and said he was ready to immediately deploy 40 marine firefighters. “We must now act very quickly to stem the spread of this mutant and virulent form of Covid-19,” said the councilor.
In addition, always on the front of this British variant, much more contagious than the “classic” virus and which could more affect young people, several hundred people came to be tested yesterday in the village hall of Bagneux.
In this city in the southern suburbs of Paris, the British variant of the coronavirus has been detected in a person.This is a municipal school leader who worked in two establishments in the city before Christmas and then during the school holidays.
The mayor of Bagneux is “not worried”
This patient was immediately isolated but, as revealed by the Department of Health, did not travel to the UK or come into contact with anyone who had been there. Something to worry about the population.
The campaign, which began on Friday and will also continue on Monday and Tuesday, is being conducted via PCR tests. If the result is positive, they will be sequenced to identify the British variant.
“I am not worried”, assured the mayor, Marie-Hélène Amiable. “What would have worried me is that we do not take all the measures. There, they were taken,” she adds. “It is by massively testing the inhabitants that we will be able to measure whether the variant of the virus has spread in the city or not”.
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