The viral situation is "worrying" in Marseille, ruled Sunday, January 10, the PS mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan.
A total of seven new cases linked to the British variant of Covid-19 have been discovered.
Since the discovery of a first case linked to this variant, to which around twenty contact cases tested positive were linked, seven of these new cases have been identified as carriers of the English strain at the origin of their disease, said Sunday. ephemeral environmental mayor of the city, now the first deputy in charge of health Michèle Rubirola.
Benoît Payan and Michèle Rubirola spoke on Sunday at a press point organized in a marine fire station in Marseille, a little less than three hours before the implementation of the curfew, which, in Marseille as in the all of Bouches-du-Rhône and in seven other departments, was brought forward to 6 p.m., against 8 p.m. previously.
"Now every minute counts to stem the spread of the English strain," continued the mayor of the city.
"We must react immediately, we want us to get out of the usual patterns of the crisis and do everything to trace, test and isolate urgently all potential carriers of the British strain."
# COVID19 |
This Sunday, the Mayor of Marseille, @benoitpayan, took stock of the health situation in Marseille, in the presence of @MicheleRubirola, @yann_ohanessian and the teams of the @marinspompiers Battalion of the City ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/XCbMZSWBqB
- City of Marseille (@marseille) January 10, 2021
Intensify checks at airports
"A team of 40 marine firefighters was mobilized yesterday (Saturday) evening" and this morning "our teams went to test five first addresses, surface tests were carried out", added the elected official.
One of these buildings "revealed traces of Covid in the environment. As a precaution, we performed tests on the 30 residents of the building. The results are in progress but two people from the building are positive for Covid- 19 and were invited to isolate themselves ", he continued, assuring that the response of the city and the marine firefighters to the crisis was" unprecedented in France ".
"I want the government to intensify controls at airports and I ask the ministers to put in place drastic measures concerning the entries and exits of the territory", added the elected official.
"At the same time, we are ready to carry out a major vaccination campaign, as soon as the government provides us with the vaccines. Until then, we call on all Marseillaise and Marseillais to respect barrier gestures and health instructions" .
"Proportionate measures" to prevent the spread of the variant
While eight departments advance their curfew at 6 p.m. on Sunday, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, assured Sunday morning on Europe 1 that "the government was doing everything possible to prevent the dissemination of this variant".
"I do not want us to experience" the same "catastrophic" situation as in England and Scotland, which had to reconfigure themselves, he added.
France is taking "proportionate measures" in the face of "slow growth in the circulation of the virus", and "whether there is any need to take further action (it will be) if we find that the virus is resuming a wild ride under the form of a wave, which is not the case at the time I speak to you ", assured the minister, questioned on a possible reconfinement.
Massive screening
How far does the variant travel in France?
The health authorities should begin to see more clearly next week, explained Olivier Véran.
A massive screening operation took place on Saturday in Bagneux, in the Paris suburbs, where a school leader was detected positive for the variant.
In Roubaix, in the North, a vast campaign of PCR and antigenic tests will begin on Monday, as in Le Havre at the end of December, with the variant in the line of sight thanks to genetic sequencing.
But it's a safe bet that the mutation, which seems more contagious, is already circulating actively.
A delivery of "50,000 first doses" of the Moderna vaccine
A national survey has been launched to make it a "first map" based on all positive tests from Thursday and Friday.
In the light of the first results, as well as the probable fallout from the end-of-year holidays, the second area of concern, new restrictions could be taken.
"There is no need at this stage to consider the closure of schools", for example by extending the February holidays, said Olivier Véran.
Even if the indicators of the epidemic remain worrying, he recalled, with an average of 18,000 cases per day and a "hospital pressure" which does not drop (2,600 serious cases in intensive care).
On the vaccines front, after strong criticism of the slowness at the start of the campaign, the country should "exceed 100,000" vaccinated this weekend, said the minister, saying he was calm in the face of "false controversies".
Regarding the vaccine of the American Moderna, which has just been validated by the health authorities, France will receive Monday "a delivery of 50,000 first doses", which will be "dispatched" by Wednesday in areas where the virus circulates the most, he added.
With AFP
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