It officially bears the name VOC 202012/01 but is commonly referred to as the “British variant”. And it circulates in Ile-de-France, as the Minister of Health Olivier Véran revealed on Tuesday. We learned this Thursday afternoon that it was in Bagneux, in the south of Hauts-de-Seine, that for the first time, a case of this variant was detected without it being possible to precisely trace the chain of contamination. . Sign that the mutant is circulating well in France.
By way of a press release, the Directorate General of Health (DGS) confirms “a case of contamination by the viral variant VOC 202012/01 in Ile-de-France, for which it was not found, during the investigation epidemiological, concept of travel or contact with a case that has traveled. “It is more precisely” a person working in two schools in Bagneux “.
“It is about an animator intervening in two schools of the city”, specifies the municipality. Who does not wish, just like the Regional Health Agency (ARS), to reveal which establishments are concerned. On the other hand, the two institutions confirm that the facilitator was detected during the Christmas school holidays and that he did not return to work at the start of the school year.
“This is the first time that we do not know how the person was contaminated by the variant”
The discovery comes back to the Biogroup laboratory, which analyzes 40% of PCR tests in Ile-de-France. And to a certain degree of luck too. Of the 4000 positive PCR tests of December 22, two intrigued a biologist from the Thiais analysis platform (Val-de-Marne). This set in particular is equipped with machines that can detect the British mutant. Not all of them are.
“The biologist warned the CNR (national reference center) in Pasteur, that he had two suspicious profiles and asked if he could send them”, details Laurent Kbaier, biologist at Biogroup. The CNR performs the sequencing, which ensures that it is indeed a mutant virus. Hypothesis confirmed. If this PCR had been analyzed on another, unequipped platform, the variant would not have been detected. And would probably have contaminated even more. Because the mutant, if it is not more serious, has the particularity of being very contagious. Proof of this is that the majority of contact cases have tested positive.
“It is important to note that these two people had not traveled to England, which proves that they were contaminated in France”, continues the laboratory. “This is not the first time that the English variant has been detected in Ile-de-France, but it is on the other hand the first time that we do not know how this person was contaminated by the variant, explains a source. health, as no stay or contact with a person returning from Great Britain has been reported. “
Beyond contact tracing, which consists of isolating all contact cases to avoid the spread of the English variant, health authorities are challenged to find what is called the “index case”, that is to say upstream of the contamination. Which means that the English mutant is circulating in France.
A giant screening in Bagneux from Saturday
Other cases of Covid-19 have been detected among the staff of the establishments concerned, but the infection with the British variant “is not yet confirmed”, assure the health authorities.
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“Given the absence of travel or exposure to a contact who has resided or traveled in the United Kingdom, the health authorities will deepen the investigations and offer an expanded screening in the school communities concerned,” announces the DGS. The objective is to verify that the viral variant does not circulate in these establishments.
For its part, the city sees wider and provides “a massive screening for all the inhabitants of the town who would like to be tested”. They will be able to go to the Léo-Ferré room, rue Charles-Michels, next Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
At the same time, all positive samples from the sector will be analyzed to check whether or not it is the English variant. According to our information, the laboratories are invited to send positive PCRs to the CNRs this weekend.
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