The Delta variant is gaining ground in the Landes, with now some 250 cases - proven or probable - and around 30% of Covid-19 contaminations.
However, paradoxically, the overall health situation is improving in the department, the authorities said on Monday.
This is what the prefect Cécile Bigot-Dekeyzer explained during a press briefing, but the Delta variant, identified for the first time in India in April, “is very present and its presence is progressing”. "We have 114 proven cases, that is to say sequenced and screened, in the Landes" and 134 "probable" cases, detailed Didier Couteaud, departmental delegate of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Nouvelle-Aquitaine, commenting on the results - still partial - of the sequencing of some 250 positive Covid-19 tests carried out last week after the announcement of the existence of this variant in this southwestern department and the first
contact-tracing operations
.
"We only have part of the results but in 99% of cases, it is the Delta variant that emerges", explained the head of the ARS.
“The Delta variant is progressing but we are seeing a decrease in the number of positive cases in the department.
It is because this variant eats the others, between quotation marks ”.
5,000 tests will be carried out this week
Now in the Landes, "30% of those contaminated (by Covid-19) are by the Delta variant", added the prefect, specifying that 15 of the 18 communities of municipalities in the department were now concerned, against six the previous week when only about thirty cases were confirmed.
Read also Covid-19: England pauses its deconfinement in the face of the rise of the Delta variant
According to Mr. Couteaud, 63% of the positive for the Delta variant are under 50 years old and 66% are not vaccinated. "Less than 10% of them have a complete vaccination schedule (2 doses, editor's note) which, for some, does not necessarily date from 15 days (before contamination, editor's note)", he added, specifying that two of the three Covid patients in intensive care in the department were cases of the Delta variant. The Delta variant spotted in the Landes, unrelated to foreign countries, has a 452R2 mutation, classified as a "mutation of interest", the health manager further explained. According to Ms. Bigot-Dekeyzer, it "is starting to appear in other parts of the country".
The representative of the State also explained that the "action plan" put in place last week, which is based on the "three pillars test-alert-protect", would continue to be deployed and called on the population to to get vaccinated. At the level of screening in schools, 5,000 tests will be carried out this week (6,000 last week), explained the academic management of the Landes.