The British variant has led to a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic, raising the question of the adoption of new restrictive measures.

If he wants to be cautious, Bruno Lina, professor of virology at the CHU de Lyon and member of the scientific council, explains however that the signals are rather positive.

INTERVIEW

The evolution of the English variant remains the great unknown of the coronavirus epidemic.

A rapid spread could cause the number of cases to flare up again and cause the high plateau on which France is located.

Faced with these concerns, Bruno Lina, professor of virology at the CHU de Lyon and member of the scientific council in charge of studying the spread of the variant, sees "positive" signals despite the progression of this virus.

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"On January 8, at the French level, there was 3.3% of the British variant and 7% in Ile-de-France. On January 27, we were at 13.5% at the French level and close to 20% in Ile-de-France. This virus continues to progress and we have fragmented data which say that this proportion is still increasing. We knew that it was going to increase ", explains Bruno Lina.

"But if it increases by 50% or 150% every week, it is not the same thing," he says.

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He thus recalls that in "Ireland and Portugal we have seen extremely significant increases and a doubling of the number of these cases practically every week".

Fortunately, the situation is not identical in France.

"With our Flash study, it is not this level of increase that is observed in France. It is increasing but less quickly. So it is a positive signal", he says.

The measures put in place are slowing its progress

This does not mean to stop being wary of the British variant.

Without him, "it is likely that we would have a significant reduction in the number of cases", analyzes the specialist.

"There remains a level of contamination of 40 to 60% higher than the previous virus but the measures that we have in place are slowing its progress and counterbalancing", explains Bruno Lina.

The objective is "to know if they will be sufficient to control the diffusion of the variant", specifies the professor of virology.

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Bruno Lina affirms that "the fact of having studies which allow us to follow the level of penetration of this virus in France and to correlate it with the rate of infection allows us to have key elements to know if we are going to be optimistic or pessimistic side ".

Concretely, this amounts to determining whether containment is necessary or not.

The question of collective immunity and vaccination complicate the equation by participating in the control of the variant.