A first case of the new strain of covid-19 that emerged in the UK was detected this Friday in the town of Tours, in central France, the French Ministry of Health announced.
The first positive confirmed in France of the new virus variant is a Frenchman who resides in the United Kingdom and who is asymptomatic, the Ministry said in a statement, in which it specified that the infected person was isolated in quarantine.
After arriving “from London on December 19 (…), he received medical attention in a hospital and on the 21st he tested positive,” said the ministry, which said it was “the first to be infected by the variant VOC 202012/01 “in French territory.
As per the protocol put in place after the discovery of this strain, possibly more contagious, in the south-east of the UK, a “sequencing” of viruses was carried out which carried this patient to the National Reference Center. of Respiratory Infections Virus. The latter confirmed on Friday the infection with VOC variant 202012/01.
“Health officials began a search of the medical professionals who cared for the patient and the people with whom he was in contact, so that they are strictly isolated,” the statement said.
In addition to this case, “so far, several positive samples that could be due to the VOC variant 202012/01 are being sequenced by the laboratories” of the National Reference Center, the Ministry added.