It has "the color, the smell, the taste of Omicron, but it's not exactly Omicron".
This definition of the BA.2 sub-variant by the Minister of Health is not necessarily reassuring, two months after the emergence of an Omicron variant that dampened hopes, in the fall, of an end of the Covid-19 pandemic that some wanted to be imminent.
But Olivier Véran wants to be confident, this Tuesday on LCI.
According to him, BA.2 may be “just as contagious as Omicron”, but “is not more dangerous”.
To support his statement, the Minister bases himself on the first returns from Denmark, where BA.2, "sub-lineage" of the previous variant, would have become the majority.
“We are discussing with our Danish counterparts.
(…) What the Danes tell us is that it's exactly the same (
Editor's note
, as Omicron), with one difference, it is that we could potentially recontaminate ourselves with BA.2 even when we has already been contaminated with Omicron.
This could give it a competitive advantage,” concedes the minister.
60 cases per 10,000 in France last week
“In Denmark, it is factual, it is the majority, more than 50% of cases today.
We find this BA.2 variant in France, we find it in England, we find it all over the world,” adds Olivier Véran.
In France, the “raw” Omicron variant still has the advantage over BA.2.
"In the sequencing studies that we did on 10,000 real-life sequencings last week, it was sixty cases, but the Omicron experience showed us that 60 cases could be thousands of cases a few days or weeks more. late,” tempers the minister.
➡#Covid19: on the BA2 sub-variant 🗣️
@olivierveran
"It's as contagious as Omicron, but no more dangerous, maybe less"
📺#LesMatinsLCI |
@EliMartichoux pic.twitter.com/Y1wHcfoqUX
— LCI (@LCI) January 25, 2022
While BA.2 "seems to take power" in Denmark and other countries, such as India according to him, the president of the Scientific Council Jean-François Delfraissy confirms this Tuesday on FranceInfo to keep a watchful eye on this "little cousin of Omicron".
“If it takes the place in Denmark, that means that it is more transmissible”, imagines the professor.
As for knowing if it is more dangerous… Nothing leaves it for the moment to imagine, but “we look at it closely”, hammers the scientist.
