The rules of physical distancing were somewhat heckled this Friday afternoon at the Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil (Val-de-Marne).
The reason for this provisional setting aside of the health protocol: a visit by the government spokesperson.
Gabriel Attal followed the circuit of the sequencing platform that this establishment of the AP-HP contains.
A movement led drum beating as France tries to catch up with its English or Swiss neighbors, much more advanced, quantitatively speaking, in the large-scale analysis of the complete genome of the virus, and therefore in the hunt for its variants.
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The Secretary of State to the Prime Minister was therefore there to highlight the rise in power initiated by France.
"We have made a lot of efforts in recent months, these past weeks," he points out.
In the fall, there were a few hundred sequencing done every week.
By the end of February, we should be able to sequence 20,000 samples per month.
"An" extremely strong "increase which allows" to have the widest possible eyes on the epidemic in our territory ".
With the latest measures taken by France to curb the epidemic and the strengthening of sequencing capacities, the fight against Covid-19 and the tracking down of its many variants is therefore, according to him, on better rails today than a few weeks ago.
A new variant called… Henri-Mondor
On the side of the various professionals gathered within the sequencing platform visited on Friday, this increase in power and workload does not seem to cause a revolution.
"This platform is an adventure that began ten years ago," underlines Professor Jean-Michel Pawlotsky, head of the biology and pathology department at Henri-Mondor hospital.
When the virus arrived, this multidisciplinary structure was ready for the epidemic.
"
Créteil, this Friday.
The Mondor team receives the samples before sequencing them.
LP / Gerald Moruzzi
Day after day, sequencing after sequencing, these teams see the genome of the various variants listed for several weeks appear on their screens, especially English and South African, but also others hitherto unknown.
One of them bears, for the moment, the name of the hospital where it has been updated, “Henri-Mondor”.
It was detected here this week in samples taken from four people in the Albert-Chenevier hospital, an establishment belonging to the Henri-Mondor university hospital group, also located in Créteil.
“We also found it in the Dordogne,” says Jean-Michel Pawlotsky, without a hint of concern.
The specialist wants to be reassuring.
“We must not panic people as soon as a new variant appears,” he says.
Variants, we will find them every week, and this is quite normal for a virus.
"
Call for vigilance before the holidays
Gabriel Attal was also there to reassure, in particular on the English variant: "His share in positive diagnoses is increasing, but our vigilance and our mobilization are also increasing", points out the one who wants to trust the French in the fight against Covid-19.
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While some of them are about to go on vacation, some fear a snowball effect and an increase in contamination.
"The French are used to holidays under Covid," said the government spokesperson.
He recalls that there was no explosion of the epidemic in January after the holiday season.
“The French are responsible, they have made efforts, he notes. I am convinced that they will make the same efforts and that they will have the same level of vigilance for these vacations which are beginning.
"