Covid-19: what we know about the Breton variant
A new variant of SARS-CoV2 has been detected in the hospital of Lannion in the Côtes d'Armor. Investigations are underway to evaluate the transmissibility and the danger of this "Breton variant".
A cluster at the hospital in Lannion.
The Directorate General of Health announced Monday that a new variant of SARS-CoV2 had been detected in Brittany, a few days after the first information revealed by the "Telegram". The alert was given to the Regional Health Agency in late February by the hospital of Lannion: a cluster appeared in the institution, but some patients with symptoms make several PCR tests that all come back negative. "What concerned us was the fact that some patients had up to four negative PCR tests. We therefore suspected a new variant, the specificity of which seemed to translate into a virtual absence of the virus in the nasopharyngeal area, which made it undetectable...", a hospital source told the Breton regional daily on March 10. The newspaper specifies that several patients had already contracted the virus in the past. The ARS Brittany has therefore reported these concerns to the Directorate General of Health. Three weeks later, 79 cases of Covid-19 were identified, among patients and caregivers, eight of which were carriers of an unlisted variant, confirmed after sequencing.
No information on a higher severity or transmissibility.
The DGS was able to deliver new information on Monday following the first analyses conducted by the Pasteur Institute. This new variant would carry "nine mutations" in the region coding for protein S but also in other viral regions, she wrote in a message addressed to health professionals. According to the health agency, there is no evidence of increased severity or transmissibility at this time. It is now waiting for additional studies to evaluate transmissibility, severity and the possible risk of immune escape. The hospital in Lannion has taken measures to isolate all Covid-19 positive cases and their contacts. This quarantine imposed on caregivers reduces the number of available staff and has led to the suspension of admissions in the affected departments. "Patients are being redirected to other facilities in the territory," said ARS.
Thousands of variants "to follow".
The appearance of variants of the virus is a natural process as it acquires mutations over time to ensure its survival. At this stage, three variants in the world are considered particularly worrying: the variants detected in England, in South Africa and in Japan (commonly called "Brazilian variant" because present in travelers from Brazil). The English variant, for example, has put a strain on the English hospital system due to its approximately 50% higher contagiousness. It has progressively replaced the original SARS-CoV2 strain: between September 2020 and January 2021, it has flourished to represent 60% of new infections. Alongside these three variants, there is a second category of variants "to watch", monitored by the international scientific community because of their potentially problematic genetic characteristics but still circulating only on a smaller scale. The "Breton variant" has been classified in this category, which already includes thousands of variants appearing throughout the world.
Source: AFP
