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March 16, 2021 A new variant of the coronavirus has been isolated in Brittany, the French health directorate general announced, specifying that investigations are underway to establish contagiousness and severity.
Meanwhile, the variant has been classified as "to be followed" by the authorities.
Health authorities initially found several cases in Brittany of people with Covid symptoms "belonging to an outbreak", but with negative PCR tests.
The outbreak would have developed at the Lannion hospital center, in the Côtes-d'Armor department.
On March 13, 79 cases were identified, including eight carriers of the variant, identified with sequencing.
The analysts carried out by the Institut Pasteur have highlighted a "new variant, carrying nine mutations in the regions that encode the S protein, but also in other viral regions" announced the management.
"An evaluation is underway to assess the possible impact on non-recognition by virological tests that would lead to a diagnosis defect."
But "the first analyzes do not allow to conclude that it has a gravity or transmissibility higher than the historical virus".