The covid variant first spotted in Great Britain did not spare France for long… After the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa, Lebanon, Switzerland, Italy and even Japan, it is now a French expatriate living and London and back in France for the Holidays, in Tours, that this new virus strain has been reported this Friday December 25, 2020. The latter, arrived in France on December 19 and showing no symptom, has been taken in charge by Tours university hospital, three days later, on December 21, and has tested positive.
According to the DGS – the Directorate-General for Health – the man has been immediately placed into self-isolation and is feeling well. “The Health Authorities have proceeded in contact-tracing of the healthcare professionals that took care of the patient, and have been looking for contact people who might be at risk, to proceed to their strict quarantine” the Health ministry explains in a release shared by LCI.
Other cases are being tracked, the DGS says, adding that “several positive samples” could “suggest variant VOC 202012/01”. They “are being sequenced”. For the record, France has closed its borders with the United Kingdom and has halted trains and flights leaving to and from Great Britain several days ago before progressively reopening them, enabling the French stuck there to make it back home. A variant has managed to cross the border, despite compulsory tests on the British soil.
