France Detects Rare COVID-19 Strain, Government Takes Practical Steps

France detected a "very rare variant" of COVID-19 in the city of Bordeaux, health authorities told AFP on Friday.

Accordingly, the authorities started speeding up the vaccination rollout in the city, Sky News reported on Saturday.

All adult residents of the city will receive "unconditional" access to the vaccine doses this weekend.

Bordeaux medical advisor Patrick Dehail said: "We are working with the (health) ministry to obtain the extra doses required," adding "the boosted local effort will then be expanded to the wider Bordeaux area."

The mass testing of the city's residents found 46 infections of the newly discovered strain.

"We are talking about a variant that has already been identified at the national level but which has been very rare until now," Dehail explained.

Identified as VOC 20I/484K, the strain is considered as a mutation of the British variant of COVID-19. Furthermore, this variant was found in Paris.