A first case of the British strain of the coronavirus was discovered in France just hours after the start of the vaccination campaign in the country, where the first doses of Pfeizer arrived on Saturday.
A patient from Tours, a Frenchman living in the UK, tested positive and analyzes showed that it contained the new strain, which the UK authorities consider to be more contagious, but no more serious to health.
The man had arrived in France by train crossing the English Channel last Saturday, the same day British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new population lockup.
Two days later he was admitted to the hospital of Tours, in the center of the country, where he had a positive test.
Due to their origin, the samples were sent to the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) where the strain was sequenced and determined to be the new British variant.
The patient is currently isolated at home and is asymptomatic.
The French health authorities have started tracking all contacts he had in search of new cases, as indicated in the protocol.
They added that there are other positive cases being analyzed to determine if it is also the British species.
Like other European countries, France closed its borders with the United Kingdom for 48 hours last Sunday at midnight, after London reported the appearance of this variant of Covid-19.
Border blockade
The border blockade, the largest the UK has with the continent, caused significant queues for trucks and passengers, which are still continuing on both sides of the Channel, despite Paris announcing the reopening of the same latter. Wednesday.
Certainly on the British side, as France is demanding a negative coronavirus test from anyone who wants to enter the country from the UK, which has led to a lawsuit bottleneck that is causing much delay.
The one from France is not the first positive for the British species to be detected in continental Europe, where there have been cases in Italy, Germany, Gibraltar and, more recently, Madrid.
His revelation comes on the eve of the vaccination campaign in Europe.
France, which has more than 2.5 million infections and 62,000 deaths, received the first 19,500 doses of the Pfeizer vaccine from the pharmacy’s warehouse in Belgium last Saturday.
Accompanied by the Gendarmerie, a refrigerated truck transported the doses to a logistics hospital center on the outskirts of Paris.
The French health authorities have foreseen that the campaign will start symbolically next Sunday in two retirement centers.
The first patients will be elderly residents in one center in Sevran, in the Paris region, and another in Champmaillot, in Burgundy, in the center of the country.
Vaccination campaign
In the coming days, the vaccine will be distributed on a regular basis, depending on the doses available among the country’s 7,000 elderly centers.
The residents are the first to receive the remedy, along with their at-risk personnel, based on the strategy drawn up by the French government, which expects this first phase of vaccination, affecting 1 million patients, to last until February. The next.
Later, the vaccine will be opened to other populations in a campaign that won’t end until well into the spring.
France has launched a digital platform to record the possible side effects of vaccinated patients.
The Covid-19 vaccine will be free in France, but it won’t be mandatory in a country where recent surveys show that more than half of citizens are reluctant to get it.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has just spent a week in isolation after testing positive on the 17th, a few days ago encouraged all citizens to wear it when it is their turn and he himself said he was willing to do so.
Macron spends a few days off in the presidential vacation home at Fort de Brégançon, in the south of the country, with his wife, after conquering the disease, the Elysee said.