French health ministry warns of new coronavirus variant that may be able to evade PCR tests

COVID-19 testing site in France.
(Image credit: DAMIEN MEYER/AFP via Getty Images)

Researchers at the Institut Pasteur are investigating whether a newly-identified coronavirus variant in the Brittany region of France may be more difficult for standard PCR tests to detect, the French health ministry said Tuesday.

The variant was reportedly first detected in a cluster of eight cases at a hospital in Lannion. Despite the patients displaying conventional COVID-19 symptoms, PCR tests were reportedly not able to pick up the presence of the virus. Reports The Local, Brittany has maintained one of France's lower infection rates, but the recent discovery has raised concerns that some cases were missed. Of course, it's certainly possible the errors could have been related to the tests themselves, rather than any genetic modifications to the virus.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.