France has discovered a new variant of COVID-19 that seems to be able to escape detection by standard virus tests.
The French Ministry of Health said on Monday evening that a group of cases of the new variant was detected at a hospital in Lannion, in the Brittany region, France24 reported.
Several of the patients tested negative for PRC, health officials said.
Researchers at the Pasteur Institute are analyzing whether the variant has genetic changes that make it more difficult to detect, the study reported.
Although potentially harder to track, the variant does not appear to be more serious or transmissible than others, officials said.
The French government has resisted pressure to order a new blockade amid the latest wave of coronaviruses, which averaged more than 20,000 new cases a day, media reported.
“The situation is not improving, there are an increasing number of infections, and hospitals are very burdened by many patients, whose average age is getting younger and who do not always have comorbidities,” said Prime Minister Jean Castex. France24.