After Ile-de-France, Haut-Rhin. Two first cases of the Omicron variant were confirmed in metropolitan France on Thursday, regional health announcements (ARS) announced. Regarding the Alsatian patient, it is a woman, aged 40 to 50 years and presenting a “complete vaccination schedule”, according to the ARS of Grand-Est.
She had tested positive for Covid-19 upon returning from a trip to South Africa, and placed in solitary confinement, before sequencing revealed the nature of the variant. “Few of the risky contacts have been identified”, further clarified the ARS.
The Omicron variant was first reported in Botswana before being detected in South Africa, which announced it on November 25. It will take “several weeks” to better understand Omicron and know if it is more transmissible, more dangerous or more resistant to vaccines, said the World Health Organization (WHO). Many teams are working on it across the world. Some fear that it will become the majority, instead of the Delta variant.