This past May 24, the Scientific Committee sent a new report to the authorities about the Indian variant, and the latter has been issued this Friday May 28, 2021. As a matter of fact, the Health Minister asked the Scientific Committee to work on the Indian variant, and more especially on the B.1.617.2 lineage very present in the United Kingdom, to “better anticipate and prepare to potential impacts likely to be caused by the surge and spread” of this variant in France.
In facts, the B.1.617.2 variant is spreading in France “as clusters in a limited number”, the Scientific Committee writes, “it reminds the situation we had to handle with the UK variant towards late December 2020”. Therefore, as of May 18, 2021, “37 cases or clusters representing 77 confirmed cases in 9 different regions” the health authorities reported, the report specifying most of these incidents “were directly related to India (return from a stay in India) or indirectly (contact with someone back from India, or episode related to transmission on a boat with Indian crew members)”.
As for resistance to vaccines, according to the Scientific Committee, the Indian variant has “a high transmissibility level, but remains sensitive to vaccines. (…) The first real-life doses available in the United Kingdom suggest vaccinal effectiveness after two doses of AstraZeneca (60%), and Pfizer (88%), but not after one dose (33% for both vaccines)”. For all that, “there is no data yet about protection against severe infection”, the Council details.
The Scientific Committee concludes recommending France “to have a very active test strategy via screening and sequencing, improving data from public and private laboratories”.
