It was both dreaded and inevitable information.
A first case of the Omicron variant was identified in France, on the island of Reunion, on Tuesday.
A few days earlier, on Sunday, the Ministry of Health had indicated in a press release that it was monitoring "with particular attention the overseas territories of Reunion and Mayotte which are directly or indirectly linked with (the seven) countries" from Southern Africa.
Air links have been suspended with these countries since Friday.
Who is the patient?
According to Doctor Patrick Mavingui, head of the Joint Unit for Infectious Process Research in Tropical Island Environments, interviewed on Réunion La 1re, the patient is a 53-year-old man who passed through Mozambique, then made a stopover in South Africa. , before returning to Reunion on November 19.
These trips would have been made in a professional context.
How was it detected?
Sunday evening, the ARS and Public Health France spotted six suspected cases, whose analyzes were sequenced to find out whether or not it was the Omicron variant.
Read also Covid-19: screening, sequencing ... understand everything in the hunt for variants (when we don't know anything about it)
The results arrived overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
This is what made it possible to identify the positive case.
What measures have been taken?
Initially, the health authorities at local and national level were notified.
The man, as well as his entourage, were quickly placed in solitary confinement, said microbiologist Patrick Mavingui.
What are its symptoms?
For the moment, the patient suffers from cough, muscle pain, fatigue and fever, detailed the researcher, still on the local channel.
It does not present, at the present time, in a serious form.
Are there other cases?
According to doctor Patrick Mavingui, samples from the five other suspected cases identified in Reunion are negative.
On the other hand, on Sunday, the Directorate General of Health announced that eight people were likely to have contracted the Omicron variant, and the results of the sequencing are, for the time being, not yet known.
