No, the Covid has not disappeared. In its last weekly update (bulletin of April 7), Santé Publique France indicates that the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 remains at a high level throughout the countryeven though only 6.6% of people aged 80 and over received a second booster dose.
In two months the BA.2 sublineage of the variant Omicron has gone from less than 5% to almost 100% of positive cases in France according to the latest Flash sequencing survey. This subvariant is more transmissible than previous strains, but less virulentwith fewer severe forms of Covid-19 and less risk of admission to critical care.
A new recombinant variant Omicron and Delta appeared, the XD variant. It represents very few cases (65 according to Public Health France on April 4) but remains under surveillance by the authorities and the WHO. As to XE variantit combines the two subvariants from Omicron, BA.1 and BA.2.
Variant XE: no case in France
While the XD variant is present sporadically in France, it is in the United Kingdom that the combination XE circulates the most, with 1,200 cases recorded. In France, for the time being, only one case has been identified. So don’t worry.
Variant XE: as contagious as measles?
XE, is a recombinant between sub-variant BA.1 and sub-variant BA.2. He has been under WHO surveillance since early April. According to the first data, it would be more transmissible than Omicron, which was already more contagious than Delta. According to scientists from the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA), the combination could even be “10% more contagious than BA.2“, already qualified as a “hypercontagious” variant.
Australian Professor Adrian Esterman, a former WHO epidemiologist, explains in the Canberra Times that the XE is likely to be the one that “will cause the most problems in the world“, taking over from BA.2. The latter being himself “close to measles, our most contagious disease“, underlines this specialist, “the XE version of Omicron is now probably as transmissible as measles”.
For the time being, this sub-variant does not circulate in France. According to Étienne Simon-Lorière, head of the RNA virus evolutionary genomics unit at the Institut Pasteur, interviewed by our colleagues from France Infothere is no worrying signal concerning these two variants: XE could be a little more contagious than the BA2but this remains to be confirmed, as its distribution remains very limited for the moment, and there is no particular severity associated with these two variants.
For its part, varying or not, Public Health France recalls in its latest bulletin, that in the current context of high circulation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses as well as their impact on the healthcare system and on the hospital , the application of barrier gestures (wearing a mask in closed spaces or during large gatherings, hand washing, ventilation of closed places) is essential, in particular to protect vulnerable people. The vaccination effort including the second booster dose must also continue in eligible populations.
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