Almost all of the residents have been infected with the virus.
An outbreak of Covid-19 contamination has developed in an Ehpad in Chauny (Aisne), of which 27 residents have died, announced Thursday the Hauts-de-France Regional Health Agency.
The sequencing of certain samples revealed the presence of a “not very widespread” variant of the virus, specifies the ARS.
READ ALSO>
Follow the latest information on the health crisis in our direct
“Since the appearance of the first case of Covid-19 on January 5, and despite the measures taken by the establishment […], the Fontenelle de Chauny nursing home has faced a cluster that has so far affected 106 residents out of 111 and 57 professionals out of 70. 27 residents died ”, continues the ARS in its press release.
"No new cases have been detected among residents for more than 10 days and among staff for almost a week."
A still unrecognized degree of virulence
The sequencing carried out on 30 samples revealed the presence of a variant for 25 of them.
This is "a known variant, belonging to the 19B lineage", a lineage "not widely used in the world and in Europe", according to Public Health France, indicates the ARS.
The agency specifies that viruses carrying the same mutations as those found within this cluster have been detected since the end of December in the Middle East, in the United States and since January in Europe, in Switzerland and, for France, in Burgundy. -Franche-Comté and Occitanie.
To date, there is no data to say whether this variant could be more transmissible, or to determine its degree of virulence compared to other variants of SARS-CoV-2, underlines the ARS.
Other samples being sequenced
The National Reference Center - Respiratory Infections Virus (CNR Institut Pasteur) does not take it into account “as part of the“ worrying variants ”, like the variants discovered in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. », Specifies the Agency.
However, in order to identify a possible wider circulation of this variant, around ten samples from the Chauny hospital center are being sequenced.
All positive RT-PCR tests carried out in the agglomeration community of Chauny-Tergnier-La Fère between February 4 and 9 will also be sequenced to identify possible variants.
A large-scale screening operation should be organized in this territory next week.
