The viral situation is “worrying” in Marseille, ruled on January 10 Benoît Payan, the PS mayor of the city. At least eight cases linked to the English variant of the coronavirus have been identified there within a family cluster.

“There is a viral reality in Marseille which is worrying,” said Mr. Payan, who was speaking at a press briefing from a fire station in the city. This press point took place a little less than three hours before the implementation of the curfew, which, in all of Bouches-du-Rhône and in 7 other departments, was brought forward to 6 p.m., against 8 p.m. previously.

The Marseille firefighters have for months adopted a predictive strategy for monitoring wastewater: they have confirmed observing “a stronger circulation of the virus” for a few days.

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An extended family cluster

Regarding the English variant, at least eight cases have been identified in Marseille within an extended family cluster. Out of the twenty contact cases tested positive for Covid-19 after the discovery of a first case linked to the British variant, seven had already been identified as carriers of the English strain on January 10.

“Now every minute counts to stem the spread of the English strain,” continued Mr. Payan: “We must react immediately, we want to get out of the usual patterns of the crisis and do everything to trace, test and isolate urgently all potential carriers of the British strain “.

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Environmental control

“A team of 40 marine firefighters was mobilized yesterday (January 9) evening” and this morning “our teams went to test five first addresses, surface tests were carried out”, added the mayor.

One of these buildings “revealed traces of Covid in the environment. As a precaution we carried out tests on the 30 residents of the building. The results are in progress but two people from the building are positive for Covid- 19 and were invited to isolate themselves “, he continued, assuring that the response of the city and the marine firefighters to the crisis was” unprecedented in France “.

Read also: MAP – Covid: the epidemic is worsening

Control of entry into the territory

“I want the government to intensify checks at airports and I ask ministers to put in place drastic measures concerning entry and exit from the territory,” asked Benoît Payan.

The prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône, Christophe Mirmand, replied on the evening of January 10 in a press release “that all means were implemented to guarantee health security when entering the national territory and specifies that the passengers tested positive (less than 0.5% of people checked) are notified of a prefectural order placing them in isolation “.

Finally, the mayor of Marseille, like the LR president of the Departmental Council and of the metropolis, Martine Vassal, like many local elected officials, called on the government to provide vaccines, “the solution”.