New Covid variant drives virus surge in France

The BQ.1.1 subvariant of Covid-19 is currently taking precedence over the BA.5 strain in France, a top health expert told the local media.Brigitte Autran, president of the Committee for Monitoring and Anticipating Health Risks (COVARS), told the news channel BFMTV on Wednesday that the latest Covid resurgence is the “beginning of a wave”, even though the increase in the number of cases is “not significant yet”, reports Xinhua news agency.”The trend is not good, it is up” because of the subvariant of the virus, she said.BA.5, the subvariant of the original Omicron subvariant that has been prevalent in France, “has already been replaced, swept away by the BQ.1.1 subvariant, which is the baby of BA.5”, she added.