It now represents 9 to 10% of covid cases in France, against 2 to 4% last week. The Delta variant of the coronavirus, more contagious than the other variants, is spreading in the territory, the government warned on June 23.

70% of cases in the Landes

But not all departments are affected in the same way. The situation is most worrying today in the Landes region, since the Delta variant represents 70% of the positive cases detected there.

The Landes is elsewhere “the only department where we see an increase in the epidemic“,”the only department in France to be passed above the alert threshold of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants“, said government spokesman Gabriel Attal.

Read also: Could the delta variant threaten the return to normal life?

“Reactive” vaccine strategy

Faced with this increase in cases and the worrying example of the United Kingdom, where the Delta variant represents more than 90% of cases and has delayed the lifting of health restrictions, the High Authority of Health (HAS) has been advocating a new strategy since June 21: that of “reactive” vaccination.

What is it about ? This strategy consists of massively and locally vaccinating when an outbreak linked to the Delta variant – or to another emerging and worrying variant – appears.

Vaccinate an entire neighborhood

Gone, therefore, the vaccination “ring”, which targeted the contact cases of patients and the contact cases of these contacts. It is now the entire entourage who will be vaccinated, “that is to say all the individuals in the household of the detected case, people at their workplace and / or at school / university“specifies the HAS.

Concretely, if a case of covid due to the Delta variant occurs in a neighborhood, the entire neighborhood will be vaccinated. If a case occurs in a company or in a university, the entire structure will be vaccinated. Such a strategy had already been put in place in the Bacalan district in Bordeaux.

90% Delta variant in the EU this summer?

For health authorities, mass vaccination is the only solution to pull the rug out from under the Delta variant. And the data carried out under real conditions in the United Kingdom are encouraging since they show that all the vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen) remain effective against the severe forms of covid induced by the variant Delta.

But if vaccine coverage is too low, this variant could represent 90% of covid cases in the European Union by the end of the summer and lead to a new epidemic wave, finally alerts the European Center for Prevention and Control diseases.