The South African and Brazilian variants are of increasing concern at the highest peak.
Thursday evening, during a press point, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran indeed spoke of a "worrying situation" in the Moselle department, where the number of cases detected in recent days has increased.
"We have identified in Moselle more than 300 cases of mutations suggestive of South African and Brazilian variants over the past four days [...] there were already 200 additional cases identified the previous days".
The cases in Moselle do not all seem to be linked to clusters, trips abroad or contacts with people who have traveled.
The minister announced that he will visit the department the next day.
Objective: "to assess the situation, to discuss with all the elected representatives of the territory, the health actors, the prefect, the officials of the Regional Health Agency, and to conduct a consultation in order to anticipate the responses that we will need. collectively find ”.
READ ALSO>
Covid-19 in France: worrying circulation of the English variant in Dunkirk
"We must obviously be ready to act, if the situation should require it, in order to protect the population in a territory which has already paid a heavy price for the pandemic", Olivier Véran underlined.
These two variants are particularly watched because, apart from appearing to be more contagious, like the one that has emerged in the UK, they could also be less sensitive to certain available vaccines and escape the antibodies made by people cured of Covid-19. .