Health officials said on Tuesday that a new coronavirus variant sweeping through north-west France could evade detection in standard tests.
The variant, first spotted in Brittany, “doesn’t suggest either increased severity or increased transmissibility” but there are indications its presence in patients is harder to confirm.
Brittany's health workers are trying to establish the extent of the variant's circulation as French authorities fear a third wave of the pandemic has arrived.
“An evaluation is under way to assess the possible impact of these genetic modifications ... on a lack of recognition by virological tests leading to an underdiagnosis,” the general directorate of health said.
-
A health worker looks at the AstraZeneca vaccine in Tbilisi, Georgia. A shipment of 43,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Georgia on 13 March as some countries temporarily halted the use of the jab. EPA -
A patient infected with Covid-19 is carried from an ambulance to a plane heading to a hospital in western France western,at Orly airport, south of Paris. AP Photo -
Workers from the entertainment sector protest against the lack of support a year after the coronavirus disease forced a national lockdown, in Seville, Spain. Reuters -
Carabinieri patrol the streets close to Venezia square and Corso street during the last weekend before the new measures against the Covid-19 pandemic come into force, in downtown Rome, Italy. EPA -
A man wearing a face mask walks through a subway station in Oberursel near Frankfurt, Germany. Numbers of infections in Germany are rising again. AP Photo -
A voter casts her ballot to vote in the House of Representatives elections at a polling station in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. AFP -
A woman receives the AstraZeneca vaccine in Tbilisi, Georgia. EPA -
Police move towards demonstrators during a protest against coronavirus disease restrictions in The Hague, Netherlands. Reuters
The World Health Organisation confirmed it was investigating the variant because of its apparent ability to evade detection in people who had PCR tests.
Eight people were identified in the town of Lannion as carriers of the variant in a cluster of 79 cases.
Pierre Tattevin, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Rennes, said that in addition to these eight cases, there were “several dozen over the past few weeks”.
The incidence of the coronavirus in Brittany has risen steadily for about six weeks and is now at 133 cases per 100,000 people.
“We are in a sort of third wave of the epidemic, characterised by numerous variants,” French Prime Minister Jean Castex told Parliament.
President Emmanuel Macron said new lockdown could be introduced within days. A government source said Mr Macron would receive an update on the epidemic’s evolution from advisers on Tuesday.
His government recently paused use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine.
The European Medicines Agency reiterated on Tuesday that there was “no indication” the shot raised the risk of blood clotting after more than a dozen EU states suspended use of the drug until investigations are concluded.
AstraZeneca said there was no cause for concern and that proportionally fewer thrombosis cases were reported in immunised people than among the general population.
