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FRED SCHEIBER / SIPA

A new investigation will be launched next week to assess the circulation in France of the English and South African variants of the coronavirus, health authorities announced on Friday.

"We are preparing the next flash survey (carried out over two days), there is no date yet, it could be next week if possible", declared an official of Public Health France, Bruno Coignard. , Friday during the weekly press conference of the health agency.

A first survey in early January

According to its latest epidemiological bulletin published on Friday, there are “131 cases of infections with the VOC variant 202012/01 (United Kingdom) and 10 cases of infections with the variant 501Y.V2 (South Africa)” in France on the date of January 20.

But these data, taken from the field reports, “do not reflect in an exhaustive and representative manner” the circulation in France of these two more contagious variants, according to Bruno Coignard.

To get a more precise idea, Public Health France had launched an initial investigation, based on positive Covid-19 tests on January 7 and 8.

According to preliminary results, the English variant accounts for about 1.4% of the total of these tests.

While the consolidated data from this first investigation are expected early next week, it is likely that the proportion of cases has already increased, hence the interest in launching a second investigation.

Unlike the first, "we want this second flash survey not to specifically target the British variant but to include the possibility of spotting the presence of the South African variant, and why not Brazilian," he continued.

Don't "let yourself be surprised"

“We would not want to focus our efforts on the British variant and let ourselves be surprised” by others, he stressed.

However, extending the investigation to other variants than the one first detected in England "makes things more complex" from a technical point of view, admitted Bruno Coignard, which explains according to him that the precise date of the launch is not certain. .

For the first survey, the positive samples from January 7 and 8 were reanalyzed using a specific PCR technique, that of the company Thermo Fischer.

Unlike other PCRs, this analysis reacts differently if we are in the presence of the English variant.

After this first filter, the suspect samples were subjected to genetic sequencing to determine whether it was indeed the variant.

However, in the case of the South African variant, PCR tests capable of playing this role of first filter are not yet available.

"Other specific PCRs, not just the English variant, are coming imminently", assured Bruno Coignard.

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