Déjà vu: French scientists detect ANOTHER variant linked to travel to Cameroon and say it carries 46 mutations that may make it more vaccine-resistant and infectious (but it is so far NOT outcompeting Omicron)
Another Covid variant has been found in
France, according to scientists.
The mutant strain has 46 mutations that are thought to make it both more vaccine-resistant and infectious than the original virus.
Some 12 cases have been spotted so far near Marseille, with the first linked to travel to the African country Cameroon.
But there is little sign that it is outcompeting the dominant
Omicron variant, which now makes up more than 60 per cent of cases in France.
The strain was discovered by academics based at the IHU Mediterranee Infection on December 10, but has not spread rapidly since.
Some 12 cases have been spotted so far near Marseille, with the first linked to travel to the African country Cameroon
Some 12 cases have been spotted so far near Marseille, with the first linked to travel to the African country Cameroon. Pictured: Saint Jean Castle and Cathedral de la Major and the in Marseille, France
It is yet to be spotted in other countries or labelled a variant under investigation by the World Health Organization.
Professor Philippe Colson, who heads up the unit that discovered the strain, said: 'We indeed have several cases of this new variant in the Marseille geographical area.
'We named it "variant IHU". Two new genomes have just been submitted.'