“We are still in the selection phase, we have several possible cases, about ten,” Attal said on the Cnews channel, adding that if the diagnosis is confirmed, a quarantine will be established for the affected people.

The Ministry of Health reported hours earlier eight patients, possibly affected by the strain, which is more dangerous than the previous ones and which the World Health Organization (WHO) described as “worrying”, although it estimated that it will take “several weeks” to know how virulent it is.

The ministry relied on the positive tests carried out on people arriving from southern Africa in the last 14 days, although the confirmation will depend on “the sequencing of the samples from these patients”, and in that case reinforced measures for the identification and the isolation of possible cases and their risk contacts would be applied, as per the statement.

First identified in Southern Africa, the Omicron strain worries scientists, not only because it could have increased transmissibility, but also because it might escape the immune response of vaccines, according to Professor Samira Fafi-Kremer of the virology laboratory of the University Hospital of Strasbourg.

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