The news fell like a chopper for the inhabitants of Bouches-du-Rhône.
From this Sunday January 10, lights out at 6 p.m., the curfew was brought forward by two hours throughout the department despite opposition from local elected officials.
A decision justified by the prefect Christophe Mirmand after the discovery in Marseille of an
"extended family cluster [...] with a person stemming from the variant from the United Kingdom
".
Of the 45 contact cases tested, 23 are positive, adds the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of the PACA region.
Read also: Covid-19: France extends curfews and goes in search of the English variant
At the origin of the “
probable cluster
”, a family of five usually residing in the United Kingdom, who came to spend the holidays in the south of France, has since left.
It was the IHU Méditerranée Infection in Marseille which raised the alarm after analyzing a test carried out on December 31.
The health authorities therefore sought to establish contact cases as quickly as possible before the Covid-19 variant, 70% qualified as more contagious, is transmitted among the Marseille population.
After the discovery of the 23 positive cases, the ARS specified that additional analyzes, still underway on January 9, are being carried out "
to determine whether it is the variant of Covid-19 from the United Kingdom
".
Additional information should be communicated on Monday January 11 by ARS PACA.
While awaiting the results, the city of Marseille remains extremely vigilant and continues
"the investigations to identify other possible contact cases and allow them to be detected
".
The city stands ready to decontaminate the city center and to conduct a massive screening of the population as the city of Bagneux did in the Hauts-de-Seine.
Read also: Covid-19: why the English variant risks making the epidemic uncontrollable in France
Two teams of firefighters deployed
Fearing an outbreak of the epidemic, as in the United Kingdom which recorded more than 60,000 cases on January 9, France is seeking at all costs to limit the spread of the new strain on its territory.
The PS mayor of the city of Marseille, Benoît Payan said he was ready for his part to "
send decontamination teams if necessary, as well as emergency medical units
".
"
We must now act very quickly to stem the spread of this mutant and virulent form of Covid-19
", insisted the elected official.
It provides health authorities with two teams of 40 marine firefighters including one from the Mobile Biological Intervention Unit, capable of performing 20 PCR tests in 20 minutes, according to information from France 3. Based on a second brigade, specializing in the analysis of wastewater to detect strains of Covid-19, the Marseille city hopes to cover a geographical area where the British variant has been able to develop and thus limit its distribution in a department where the situation is "
particularly worrying,
”according to the prefect, with an incidence rate of over 225 per 100,000 inhabitants.