Given the outbreak of Covid-19 cases in China and the potential return of Chinese tourists as of January 8, the date on which they will no longer be subject to quarantine once they return to their country, the General Directorate of Health has released attention of health professionals to the situation.
In an urgent DGS dated this Tuesday -a document intended to alert health professionals about priority health problems-, Professor Jérôme Salomon, Director General of Health, called for a “strengthening of genomic surveillance (…) especially for travelers from China.”
A “degraded” situation
“The epidemiological situation has deteriorated rapidly in China after the abandonment of the ‘covid zero’ policy. The country is facing a wave of contamination associated with strong tensions in the health system, ”she writes.
The document asks health professionals who carry out tests for Covid-19 to now “systematically question any person who comes to take the test about a possible stay abroad in the 14 days prior to the start date of the test.” the symptoms or taking samples”.
In addition, people who have completed a stay abroad and who have arrived in France “less than 48 hours before the onset of symptoms” must be referred for a PCR test, which, unlike the antigen test, allows the sequencing.
This sequencing makes it possible to determine which virus strain is responsible for infecting the patient, and therefore identify the appearance of new variants.
Sample sequencing
The authorities fear that the rise in cases in China, which is characterized by overcrowding in hospitals and morgues, could favor the appearance of a new variant such as Omicron, which in 2021 caused a new outbreak of infections in European territory.
The DGS-urgent sent this Tuesday by Jérôme Salomon asks health professionals to “prioritarily carry out the sequencing of the sample”, and to send the results to the National Reference Center for Respiratory Viruses.
A measure that actually only applies to travelers from China. “To date, only the known situation in China seems to justify such an instruction,” the document details. However, positive people returning from China are not subject to any specific course of action, recalls the General Directorate of Health.
On Friday, the government said anyone returning from China will be required to submit a negative test before boarding and wear a mask on the plane. The General Directorate of Health calls for a “postponement of non-essential travel to China”.
Source: BFM TV
