Detected in the south of England, the VOC 202012/01 variant of the coronavirus seems to be spreading more and more in Europe, in particular in France.

But this is not surprising for the endocrinologist Philippe Froguel, who recalls that the logic "of a more contagious strain is to take the place of all the others".

About ten cases in Italy, four in Spain, nine in Denmark, one in Sweden, one in Germany, one in the Netherlands and one in France.

The new strain of the coronavirus detected in England, the VOC 202012/01 variant, appears to be spreading like wildfire across Europe.

This is not surprising since, according to several studies presented in the United Kingdom, the new variant is more contagious than the original strain.

One of them estimates that this contagiousness is higher by "50% to 74%".

"The logic of a more contagious strain is to take the place of all the others", reminds the microphone of Europe 1, Philippe Froguel, endocrinologist and geneticist at Lille University Hospital.

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"This is the danger today"

Already in the process of becoming the majority in the South of England, where it was discovered, the VOC 202012/01 variant "is therefore likely to be so in the rest of Europe".

And "this is the danger today", believes the specialist at the microphone of Europe 1. Because with a contagiousness much higher than the strain that we know today, this variant could well "ignite the epidemic "while" we are trying to contain the epidemic to avoid a third wave while awaiting the massive arrival of vaccines to eradicate the coronavirus ". 

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Already very complex, this task could therefore be made even more difficult by this new strain which risks "leading to an increase in cases, but also in the number of deaths".