Paris, France
A first case of the new covid-19 strain that appeared in the United Kingdom was detected on Friday in the city of Tours, in central France, announced the French Ministry of Health.
The first positive confirmed in France for the new variant of the virus is a Frenchman living in the United Kingdom and who it is asymptomatic, the ministry said in a statement, stating that the infected person had been quarantined.
After arriving “from London on December 19 (…), he received medical care in a hospital and on the 21st gave positive results”, said the ministry, which assured that he is “the first to be infected by the variant VOC 202012/01“On French territory.
As stated in the protocol launched after the discovery of this strain, possible more contagious, in the south-east of the United Kingdom, a “sequencing” of the virus carried by this patient was requested from the National Reference Center for Respiratory Virus Infections. The latter confirmed the infection with the variant VOC 202012/01 on Friday.
“Health officials have begun a search for medical professionals who have cared for the patient and the people he has been in contact with, so that they are strictly isolated,” the statement said.
In addition to this case, “so far, several positive samples that could be due to the VOC variant 202012/01 are sequenced by laboratories” from the National Reference Center, the Ministry added.