MARSEILLE/PARIS (Reuters) – Seven people in the southern French city of Marseille have tested positive for the new UK variant of COVID-19, local politician and former mayor Michèle Rubirola said on Sunday.
These seven formed part of a previously reported group of 23 people believed to have come into contact with the new UK COVID variant, which has been analysed as having a greater transmission rate.
Marseille Mayor Benoit Payan added on Sunday that 30 people in a residential building in Marseille were undergoing COVID-19 tests due to the risk that they may also have been exposed to the UK variant.
(Reporting by Marc Leras in Marseille, and Sudip Kar-Gupta and Matthieu Protard in Paris; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
