Discovered on November 25, the new Omicron variant is already worrying the whole world. In France, “eight possible cases” of this new strain of Sars-CoV-2 – the virus responsible for Covid-19 – were detected on Sunday 28 November in people who had recently traveled to southern Africa. These cases have yet to be confirmed by a sequencing of tests currently underway, according to the Ministry of Health. Faced with the risk of contagion and in the midst of the fifth wave of the epidemic, the government is trying to stem the spread of the Omicron variant. Franceinfo reviews the measures taken.
By suspending flights from certain countries
The announcement of the discovery of the new variant caused a wave of global panic and many countries, including France, decided in a few hours to ban on their territory the arrival of travelers from southern Africa.
As of Friday November 26, Paris suspended all flights from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini (formerly called Swaziland). This suspension was initially to last 48 hours, but these destinations will ultimately remain closed until December 1 at midnight, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. (PDF).
For the moment, this measure only applies to countries in southern Africa. “We will wait to see the evolution of the situation, but in Europe we have never completely closed the borders and we are not going to close the borders within Europe”, assured the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, on France Inter.
By strengthening the screening of travelers
On the same radio, Clément Beaune also promised that a “reinforced health protocol” would be set up for passengers coming from these areas and passing through French airports, considering “that we cannot live 100% on flight suspensions, because we have French nationals who have the right to join the territory”. And to add:
“There must be a very strict protocol, tests, isolation, of all people returning from these high risk countries.”
Clément Beaune, Secretary of State for European Affairson France Inter
In addition to this reinforcement, the French government announced that the overseas territories of Reunion and Mayotte were also closely monitored, due to their “direct or indirect link” with the countries of southern Africa. Since November 28, any person leaving or arriving from one of these two overseas departments must be provided with a result of a negative screening test or examination carried out less than 48 hours before boarding. And this, even if she is vaccinated.
By isolating contact cases, even vaccinated
Beyond the issue of travel, health measures are also being strengthened to try to contain the distribution of Omicron, while waiting to be fixed on the nature of this variant, in particular on its dangerousness. Thus, as soon as a possible case of contamination with the Omicron variant is identified, and even before knowledge of the sequencing results, the affected person is contacted by Medicare in order to be isolated as quickly as possible.
The people identified as a “possible case” are those who traveled to southern Africa in the last 14 days, that is between November 14 and 28, and having a positive test result with a negative screening for the mutations found in the others. variants of concern (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta).
This quarantine also concerns all individuals who have been in contact with a “possible case”, regardless of their vaccination status. These must also be tested and monitored by Medicare and ARS.
Sifting through positive tests
Many uncertainties still surround the dangerousness and transmissibility of the Omicron variant. Because of its “mutations which could confer an escape potential to the immune response as well as possibly give an advantage in terms of transmissibility”, the World Health Organization believes that it presents “a very high risk” dissemination among the world population. Even if, “To date, no deaths associated with the Omicron variant have been reported”, emphasizes the WHO.
In France, work is underway to deepen our knowledge of this variant comprising “32 mutations”, specifies Public Health France on its site. The scientific community is wondering about the possible resistance of Omicron to existing vaccines and the seriousness of the symptoms it can cause. In the meantime, surveillance is being stepped up in order to identify any epidemiological signal, such as an increase in incidence, which could constitute an alert.
All positive tests are systematically screened in order to detect those suspected of presenting the genome of the Omicron variant. All suspect tests will then be fully sequenced to confirm or not the presence of Omicron. To detect the presence of Omicron in France, in addition to screening, “we carry out between 6,000 and 12,000 sequencing per week”, assured the Minister of Health.
By extending the booster dose to all
“As I speak to you, whether or not there are one or two or ten cases of people infected with this variant in circulation in Europe, or even in France, does not impact the profile of the epidemic wave that we know. It’s a wave that is already linked to a very contagious variant, the Delta variant “, argued Olivier Véran Sunday evening. To deal with this fifth wave, the government announced that all adults aged 18 and over were eligible for a dose of reminder.
This third dose for people who have never had Covid-19 (or the second for those who have already contracted it) must be administered at least five months after the last injection of the vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or AstraZeneca) and four weeks after the single injection of Janssen. While it is still too early to know if the protection provided by vaccines also works on Omicron, thehe president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, nevertheless called on European citizens to recall within three weeks with a view to curbing the spread of the variant.
“Il should not wait “, confirms Professor Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, head of the infectious diseases department at Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil. According to this vaccination specialist, interviewed by franceinfo, “the‘arrival of a new variant is an indication to make this additional dose “ since by receiving an additional dose of vaccine, “we are going to mobilize specific populations and we are going to induce a fairly high level of antibodies”. He thus recalls that “this third dose has a much broader immunological effect”.