In Bagnères-de-Luchon, in the Pyréénes.

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Gonzalo Azumendi / VWPics / SIPA

  • Two cases of the South African variant were detected in Bagnères-de-Luchon.

  • Since then, schools have closed in this territory and a passive screening of 6,000 inhabitants of the 23 municipalities of the Valley is announced until Sunday.

  • The detection of the variant will be carried out on all the tests performed.

We are very, very far from Johannesburg.

And yet, it is at the very end of the Pyrenean valley of La Pique, in Haute-Garonne, that two cases of the South African variant of Covid-19 have been detected in recent days.

To prevent its spread, the health authorities have decided to carry out a large massive screening operation in the 23 municipalities of this territory which has nearly 6,000 inhabitants.

These two cases were confirmed in the commune of Bagnères-de-Luchon this week, as well as other symptomatic people and many contact cases led to the closure of two schools in this commune as well as that of Montauban-de-Luchon.

Suddenly, a massive screening operation is organized between today and Sunday.

“More than ever, the challenge lies in the early identification of positive cases and the characterization of their variant status.

The “test, alert, protect” strategy and the participation of everyone in screening will make it possible to slow down the local spread of this variant by allowing people diagnosed, even in the absence of symptoms, to isolate themselves and alert their loved ones ” , indicates the Regional Health Agency of Occitanie and the prefecture in a press release.

General public Saturday and Sunday

The systematic detection of variants will be carried out for all the tests, a first anti-covid operation of unprecedented scale in Haute-Garonne.

To carry out these tests, staff from the Toulouse University Hospital, firefighters from Haute-Garonne, the Mutualité sociale agricole, biology laboratories and nurses are mobilized.

This Friday, it is all the students, their families and the staff of the schools currently closed, that is to say about 700 people, who are invited to be tested.

Tomorrow and Sunday, the entire population of the 23 municipalities of the valley, or nearly 5,500 people, will be able to do so.

An operation deployed on four temporary sites, open between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., in Bagnères-de-Luchon, Montauban-de-Luchon, Saint-Mamet and Marignac.

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  • Screening

  • Pyrenees

  • Toulouse

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Health