Pierre Hurmic, the environmentalist mayor of Bordeaux. – UGO AMEZ / SIPA
Some 19,000 doses were released in order to vaccinate the entire major population of a district of Bordeaux, Bacalan, after the discovery of a cluster of about fifty positive cases for a “worrying” variant, we learned. this Saturday with the director of the Regional Health Agency.
At first, the ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine had explained that 15,000 additional doses of vaccine would be sent within three weeks, including 5,000 next week, but its director Benoît Elleboode later told AFP that he had finally received confirmation for a total of 19,000 doses (Pfizer and Moderna). In addition to the ephemeral center, the location of which has not yet been determined, these doses will be used to provide Moderna vaccine to pharmacies in the neighborhood and surrounding areas in order to speed up injections.
“It is a” worrying variant “”
The cluster that formed in Bacalan, announced on Friday by the ARS, has about fifty people positive for a variant “already known but very rare so far” in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the professor Patrick Dehail, scientific and medical adviser to the ARS. “It is a ‘worrying variant’, like the English and Indian variants, for example. His line is English but with a mutation, ”he said on Friday.
Called VOC 20I / 484Q, it is for the first time at the origin of such a large cluster. The cluster in Bordeaux was formed from “two chains of transmission” according to Public Health France, which “affect a district of Bordeaux and other neighborhoods / municipalities nearby”.
People who test positive, mostly young people, children and parents of young children attending the same school, have not been hospitalized and present “the usual symptoms, if any symptoms” according to Professor Dehail.
Not resistant to vaccination
For Benoît Elleboode, quoted by francetv.info “There are indications that this variant is not resistant to vaccination, since older people (…) appear not to have been infected with this virus”. “It’s a warning! There has been euphoria since Wednesday (and the reopening of terraces, non-essential shops and places of culture), and I share it, but we must especially not let our guard down ”, declared the EELV mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic , who went to the massive screening center installed Friday in Bacalan.
About 260 people could be tested Friday in this free center set up Thursday in just 24 hours and open for 7 days, explained Vincent Maurin, the deputy mayor of the Bordeaux-Maritime district, which includes Bacalan (about 8,000 inhabitants). The results of this first day of screening are expected during next week.
Charles-Martin school, closed on May 17 after the first cases detected among students (10 positive in total), will reopen its doors Tuesday after seven days of closure, said Maurin, who is the director.