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This is the 3rd opinion on Overseas France published by the scientific organization. While the epidemic enjoys making waves all over the planet, it is also the case in Mayotte where the situation has evolved for the better since the February 26 notice, even if the bulletin was updated on 8 March.
The first recommendations relate to the continuation of the “rigorous application” overseas of the national strategy in matters of social distancing, and the maintenance of compelling reasons for travel, “as long as the protective vaccination coverage of the population is not not reached. Continue, or even strengthen, screening for COVID-19, before travel and at the end of the week, on the way there and on the way back ”.
It also recommends in terms of variant, “systematic screening with, if possible, sequencing of all suspected cases of COVID-19 in Mayotte, Reunion, Guyana and the West Indies, as long as they have not become the majority” . Not always obvious since, if the opinion of March 11 of the Scientific Council tells us that the South African variant (SA) is not in the majority in Mayotte, contrary to what had been announced by the ARS Mayotte, unless the data have not been updated – 45% circulate with us and 63% in Reunion – we also learn that “variant sequencing is only implemented in Reunion, Guadeloupe and Martinique and at a limited level” , so not in Mayotte. Note that Public Health France had published a study on sequencing. Because this is what makes it possible to identify the presence of variants. The British variant (UK) is very predominant in the West Indies (between 76 and 100%).
A passage on the spread of the virus concerns schools: “Schools do not seem to constitute amplifiers of transmission: the circulation of the virus in schools rather reflects that which is observed within the community. The best way to keep schools open, therefore, is to reduce the transmission of the virus in the community. “
Mayotte lagging behind for vaccinations
In terms of vaccination, the Scientific Council adopts the scenario which provides for an acceleration of the various phases of vaccination against COVID-19 in all overseas territories “given their health, social and economic vulnerability, and the dynamics of penetration variants. Particular attention to Mayotte, Réunion and Guyana due to the variants (…) leaving the possibility of vaccinating the entire adult population quickly and without phasing in certain areas difficult to access to take into account logistical constraints and human ressources. “
In a tweet published on Wednesday, the French Overseas Department takes stock of the progress of the vaccination campaign in the Overseas Territories. “To date,” explains the ministry, “193,440 doses of vaccine have been delivered. 43.74% of the doses have already been used ”. On this table, Mayotte is not in the pole position of vaccinations, far from it, but when we take the table of the scientific council, and that we calculate the proportion of target population for vaccines on the whole population , we note that it is less important in Mayotte (15%) than the 21% in Guyana, 30% in Reunion and 37% in the West Indies.
Presence of a French variant in Mayotte
In its latest opinion of March 11, which the government has just made public, the institution chaired by Jean-François Delfraissy, completes its analysis of overseas territories by stressing that the populations who live there are “characterized by greater vulnerability due to more frequently found co-morbidities, a higher level of poverty, the high economic cost of territorial isolation and, for certain territories, the more rapid penetration of variants. “
It also provides unprecedented information, on the presence in Mayotte as in 6% of cases in metropolitan France, of a French variant (A27), “among the viruses monitored”, “which presents the 501Y and 452R mutations favoring transmission”. This is not the Breton variant, 20C, recently discovered in Lanion (Brittany).
In Mayotte, the “recent and relative improvement” of the situation is emphasized, which “is accompanied by a percentage drop in the SA variant, which does not appear to be replaced by the UK variant”.
If we had learned from the scientific authorities that the virus had mutated about 4,000 times in the world, justifying the presence of variant, the scientific advice looks at their limits: “It is interesting to observe that this viral evolution occurs almost simultaneously. in different regions of the planet. By analogy with other viruses and previous situations, it is possible to construct the hypothesis that these viruses undergo an immune selection pressure which leads, in the absence of viral evolution, to a significant drop in the possibilities of transmission. As a result, the virus develops evolutionary strategies making it possible to restore a potential for diffusion. “Clearly, the virus defends itself by mutating, which is not a scoop, but would therefore experience a natural drop in transmissions, which could explain the spectacular decrease in the spread of the epidemic at the end of February among us.
While waiting for another transfer? …
Consult the Scientific Council opinions of February 26, updated March 8, 2021 and Scientific Council opinions March 11, 2021
Anne Perzo-Lafond
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