One more variant on French soil.
The newspaper Latest News from Alsace revealed Wednesday that the Californian strain had been detected in mid-January in the eastern region of the country.
Sequencing work carried out at the University Hospitals of Strasbourg made it possible to identify this variant in two hospitalized patients as well as in early February, in Saverne, in the Bas-Rhin.
This mutation of the Covid-19 has never yet been officially traced in France.
It is added to the presence of the English, South African and Brazilian variants.
Another strain that had disappeared, after being spotted in the spring in Scotland, has also come to light.
“
This variant does not present any particular concern,
tempers Professor Samira Fafi-Kremer, in charge of the virology laboratory at Strasbourg University Hospitals (HUS)
,
to Le Figaro
.
Its mutation, as for the other variants, is superficial since it relates to the Spike protein, against which the vaccines remain effective
”.
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Likewise, there is no evidence at present of the greater virality of the Californian variant.
Neither of greater danger or even greater ability to avoid the immune response.
It was mid-January that the CAL.20C first made headlines in the United States.
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles publish their discovery and indicate that this variant is potentially linked to the explosion in cases of contamination observed in the densely populated region.
Since then, no large-scale analysis has made it possible to confirm this track, especially since the epidemic has since been ebbing in this area.
Other researchers suggest that this strain may have contributed to the outbreak but not at the origin.
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Its presence in the Grand-Est, however, calls for vigilance because the region is undergoing a new wave of contamination, especially in Moselle.
