This Friday, May 21, 2021, the Regional Health Agency of Nouvelle-Aquitaine announced the discovery of a cluster of around fifty people who tested positive for a “very rare” variant of Covid-19 in the Bacalan district in Bordeaux .
A “very rare” variant of Covid-19 derived from the English strain
This is the name mutation of VOC 20I / 484Q, a variant of concern from the British strain. According to Public Health France, this variant had already been spotted in France in rare sporadic cases in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Grand-Est and Ile-de-France but ” remains very rare internationally and in France “.
According to the director of the ARS of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the fact that it comes from the strain of the English variant, may suggest “ that it would be much more transmissible “. However, he affirmed that, for the moment, nothing affirms it before adding that there is ” no indication of severity “. Indeed, the 46 people who tested positive for this variant are “ rather young people who are not hospitalized and do not develop a serious form “. According to Professor Patrick Dehail, scientific and medical adviser to the ARS, the latter were not hospitalized and present “ usual symptoms or no symptoms “.
19,000 doses released to vaccinate the Bacalan district
To control the spread of this variant, a neighborhood-wide screening operation has been in place since Friday morning. At the same time, vaccination is open as widely as possible in the Bacalan district from Monday, May 24, 2021. To do this, the director of the Regional Health Agency announced last Saturday that 19,000 doses of vaccines will go be released to vaccinate neighborhood residents. In addition, an ephemeral vaccination center must be set up ” if possible from wednesday »In this district of Bacalan, in the north of the city, as indicated by the town hall of Bordeaux. In addition to the ephemeral vaccination center, the doses released will be used to supply pharmacies in the neighborhood and surrounding areas in order to speed up vaccination.
According to Benédicte Motte, director of ARS in Gironde, the objective of creating an ephemeral center is to use an already existing health center. According to her, “ the idea is to take advantage of the current screening operation, which has already affected around 500 people between Friday and Saturday but whose first results are not yet known, to tell people who test negative to go get vaccinated quickly “.