French Health Minister: must not underestimate potential danger of Indian COVID variant

French Health Minister Olivier Veran told France Info radio on Friday that it was still unclear if available COVID-19 vaccines were effective against the Indian variant, and he added that the danger of this variant must not be underestimated.

France has detected its first three cases of contamination with the B.1.617 variant of the novel coronavirus, currently present in India, the country's Health Ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.