Bordeaux in France is launching fast track vaccinations after nearly 50 people tested positive for a ‘very rare’ variant of Covid-19.
All adult residents in the Bacalan neighbourhood of northern Bordeaux will be granted unconditional access to jabs this weekend and early next week at the latest.
Mass testing began in Bacalan on Friday where health authorities asked to “anticipate the vaccination of over 18-year-olds without conditions,” Ouest France reports.
It comes after a cluster of a few dozen people tested positive for the “worrying” Covid variant.
“We are working with the health ministry to obtain the extra doses required,” said Patrick Dehail medical adviser to the regional health authority (ARS), adding that the boosted local effort will then be expanded to the wider Bordeaux area.
Many of those who tested positive were students at a local school and their parents, according to the Guardian.
France variant similar to Kent strain
Labelled VOC 20I/484Q, the variant in Bordeaux is a mutation of the British variant B.1.1.7 which was first detected in Kent.
The double mutant has already been identified throughout France, including northern Paris, where cases have been very rare until now.
In Bordeaux, at least 46 people have been infected of which none have been vaccinated or hospitalised, according to Mr Dehail.
The medical director said there is “no reason to believe that these cases will be more severe” or that the variant is resistant to mRNA vaccines like Pfizer or Moderna.
“We are not worried and the population has no reason to be,” he said.
“But it is an opportunity to remind people that the virus is still circulating and that the lifting of restrictions should not be considered as a return to life before without limits.”
Bordeaux: What now?
According to Mr Dehail, the population of Bordeaux is “relatively naïve about the virus” in a region “relatively spared” and where “collective immunity is very low for the moment”.
He added that the National Reference Center in Lyon is now responsible for a more detailed analysis of the variant.
While England has begun offering vaccinations to people over 30, jabs in France have so far been limited to the over 50s however younger people can book unused slots.
Around four in five of all new Covid cases in France are the English variant.
