Cases detected all over the continent, and in particular in France.
A patient returning to Corsica from London was infected with the British variant of the virus responsible for Covid-19, the director of the regional health agency of the island said on Monday.
"The policy of tests on arrival in Corsica has made it possible in particular to identify a traveler coming from London on whom the British variant has been identified", declared Marie-Hélène Lecenne during a press conference in the prefecture in Ajaccio.
Asked if it was a British national, she replied in the negative and specified that the person was isolated at his home.
"We detected a single traveler and we deployed the usual protocol of isolation and contact case tracing," she added, adding that no contact case had been identified on the island.
Already two cases in France
A first case of the variant identified in the United Kingdom in December had been confirmed in France on December 25, in Tours, on a Frenchman who had arrived from London a few days earlier.
The British variant, dubbed "VOC 202012/01", was detected on December 30 in a second person who had also stayed in the United Kingdom, Health Public France had indicated last week, without specifying in which region.
The presentation of proof of a negative test carried out in the 72 hours preceding the trip has been made compulsory for any person entering Corsica between December 19 and January 8: out of the 58,000 checks carried out since the implementation of this measure , "750 people were not able to justify a test and were therefore tested on arrival," said the prefect of Corsica, Pascal Lelarge.
Only 39 people, who “tried to free the line”, were fined, welcomed the prefect, judging that this “unexpected” result was the sign of “a great success” for this measure justified by an incidence rate virus significantly lower on the island than on the mainland.
A rising incidence in Corsica
The incidence rate of the disease is nevertheless increasing because of "the party effect", said Marie-Hélène Lecenne.
It went from 42 positive cases per 100,000 people in Christmas week to 63 last week, above the alert threshold set at 50, according to results communicated by the ARS but not consolidated.
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As for vaccines, the first 1950 doses should arrive at the Bastia hospital center on Wednesday.
Other doses are expected next Monday in Ajaccio and a second type of supply directly to accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) begins Thursday.
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The first beneficiaries are people over 75 years of age in an institution and nursing staff over 50 or at risk of co-morbidity.
During the first wave of Covid-19 in the spring, Corsica, which has 1,800 elderly people in institutions, was particularly affected.
In total, 141 people have died on this island of 340,000 inhabitants since the start of the epidemic, including 51 since September, according to the latest figures from the ARS on December 30.
