This time, it is certain, the British variant of the Covid-19 virus is present in Marseille!
While the prefecture and the regional health agency announced Saturday, January 9 that a member of a French family of five living in Great Britain and coming to the city for the holidays had tested positive for this variant on the 31 In December, doubts remained about the strain that had infected 23 of the 45 contact cases tested.
It was lifted this Sunday for seven of them, including the sequencing of the genome of the virus by the teams of the IHU (University Hospital Institute in Infectious Diseases) of Professor Didier Raoult revealed that it was well of the English variant, particularly contagious, the analyzes continuing for the other positives.
"There is a viral reality in Marseille which is worrying", admitted Benoît Payan, the PS mayor of Marseille, while the city which was going to experience its first day of curfew at 6 p.m. wants at all costs to avoid becoming a cluster.
“Now every minute counts to stem the spread of the English strain.
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.
We hope we can stem the spread of this strain ”.
"Out of four tests carried out, there are only three that detect the English virus, we will have to see which ones are used by the laboratories", warned for his part Michèle Rubirola, first assistant in charge of health.
Marine firefighters mobilized, analysis of wastewater
Benoît Payan also said he was ready to participate in a massive vaccination campaign, especially for front-line staff, including teachers, but, in the meantime, called on the people of Marseilles "to respect barrier gestures and health instructions".
As of Saturday, the city mobilized around forty marine firefighters, their seven mobile test centers and the two “Comet” analysis and decontamination cells, which follow, in particular, the presence and concentration of the virus in the wastewater of the city.
But for a week, they go back, to the point that a sector of Marseille is now classified red and several oranges, without certainty on the strain.
Contact cases of Marseille's “patient zero” have been identified in four districts in the south and east of the city.
Analyzes carried out by firefighters in five buildings where they resided showed the presence of the Covid in one of the buildings.
The thirty inhabitants were immediately tested and, on still partial results, two of them tested positive.
They were invited to isolate themselves but, again, it will take several hours for the IHU teams to sequence the genome of the virus and determine its strain.
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"Marseille is a port city which has an international airport", recalled Benoît Payan.
"I want the government to step up checks at airports and I ask the ministers to put in place drastic measures concerning entry and exit of the territory".