The response was swift.
Some 19,000 doses were released in order to vaccinate the entire major population of a district of Bordeaux after the discovery of a cluster of around fifty positive cases for a “worrying” variant.
An ephemeral vaccination center must also be set up "if possible from Wednesday" in this district of Bacalan, in the north of the city, said the city hall of Bordeaux.
Read also Covid-19: what we know about the "very rare" and "worrying" variant detected in a district of Bordeaux
Initially, the ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine had explained on Saturday that 15,000 additional doses of vaccine would be sent within three weeks, including 5,000 next week, but its director Benoît Elleboode later told AFP that he had finally received confirmation for a total of 19,000 doses (Pfizer and Moderna).
In addition to the ephemeral center, whose location has not yet been determined, these doses will be used to provide Moderna vaccine to pharmacies in the neighborhood and surrounding areas in order to speed up injections.
"Two chains of transmission"
The cluster that formed in Bacalan, announced on Friday by the ARS, has about fifty people positive for a variant "already known but very rare so far" in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the professor Patrick Dehail, scientific and medical adviser to the ARS.
“It is a worrying variant, like the English and Indian variants, for example.
His line is English but with a mutation, ”he said on Friday.
Called VOC 20I / 484Q, it is for the first time at the origin of such a large cluster.
The cluster in Bordeaux was formed from “two chains of transmission” according to Public Health France.
"They affect a district of Bordeaux and other districts / towns nearby".
People who test positive, mostly young people, children and parents of young children attending the same school, have not been hospitalized and present "the usual symptoms, or no symptoms" according to Professor Dehail.
About 260 people could be tested on Friday in this free center set up on Thursday in just 24 hours and open for 7 days, explained Vincent Maurin, the deputy mayor of the Bordeaux-Maritime district, which includes Bacalan (about 8,000 inhabitants).
The results of this first day of screening are expected during next week.
The results of the new Flash survey, conducted on May 11, should shed light on the spread of this variant.
They could be unveiled next Thursday.
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- Nicolas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) May 22, 2021
Charles-Martin school, closed on May 17 after the first cases detected among students (10 positive in total), will reopen its doors Tuesday after seven days of closure, said Maurin, who is the director.