He wanted to take stock with professionals on the most effective way to fight against the spread and appearance of variants.
Visiting this Tuesday afternoon in the premises of the regional health agency of Île-de-France, Olivier Véran, the Minister of Solidarity and Health, spoke in particular about the Indian variant, which is devastation for almost a week in the most populous country in the world.
While several cases have been identified in Guadeloupe or in transit through Paris, such as these students bound for Belgium who formed a cluster after arriving at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport (Val-d'Oise), concern is growing in France.
The Minister wanted to assure, in front of the press, “that particular attention is paid to the appearance of the so-called Indian variant.
As I speak to you, no case of a variant of Indian origin has been identified in metropolitan France ”.
In an attempt to flush it out if it was present, Olivier Véran announced that “5,000 sequencing (genetic mapping of the virus) are carried out per week, we will soon be at 8,000 to determine whether this or that variant takes up more space on the National territory ".
"The rule, do not throw away any dose of vaccine"
Another source of stress for medical teams, the development of the so-called South African variant, as the Parisian had observed.
“In Île-de-France, there has been an increase in the proportion of the South African variant for a long week, especially in the inner suburbs.
It represented 6% of diagnoses and now represents 10% ”, he confirmed, contradicting the remarks made on Sunday by Jean Castex who indicated that this mutation and the Brazilian one had“ a tendency to regress ”.
However, the Minister of Health considered that “the situation was under control and that the epidemic tended to regress, even if it is not fast enough that I would like […] This implies that we must continue our efforts. ".
Finally, while he was asked about the many vaccination slots that are available in France, visible on the site vitemadose.covidtracker.fr, Olivier Véran confirmed that he observed "that a certain number of large vaccination centers had open slots ”.
“Interesting news for the 4.3 million French people who still need to be vaccinated and are eligible.
I invite them to rush to their phone or their computer so that they can be vaccinated, ”he replied at first, while more than 14.2 million people have received a first injection.
Read alsoCovid-19: why India worries the whole world
While a general practitioner had pushed a rant by filming himself throwing doses of AstraZeneca vaccine that had not found a taker, the Minister recalls the instructions given to all the vaccination centers: "the rule is that no dose of vaccine was thrown away, no one would understand that it was thrown away ”. He then asks that the people on hold be called back. Finally, if there was no priority public who had to be vaccinated, the centers can contact "younger people who present with co-morbidities". A surplus resulting from an increase in dose deliveries according to the minister.
In the morning, the Ministry of Health did not rule out opening vaccination earlier than planned to everyone over 50 years old. "The President of the Republic has set for May 15 the opening of vaccination to 50 to 59 years, but if we see that there is a risk of loss of dose, we do not exclude the possibility of accelerating" , we explained.