The virus continues to grow. In January, in India, a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, called “Arcturus”, was identified. Since then, this strain has spread to a dozen countries. In France, a dozen cases of contamination have now been spotted. In addition to the other already known symptoms of Covid-19, this strain manifests itself by another sign in children close to conjunctivitis.

With Arcturus, patients feel “itchy eyeassociated with redness of the conjunctiva, with a sticky eyelid”, underlines Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of global health of the University of Geneva, in remarks relayed by several media. For him, “it is likely that the spread of this new variant is greatly underestimated”. The World Health Organization has placed this variant “under surveillance”.

“Health experts have also clarified that obese, asthmatic or immunocompromised children would be more vulnerable to these viral infections,” adds the Times of India newspaper. In India, the former head of the vaccination committee of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, Vipin Vashishtha, evokes an “infantile phenotype”. According to him, this phenomenon might be explained by the low vaccination of the youngest. Virologist Professor Lawrence Young from the University of Warwick told The Independent that the rise of this new variant in India is a sign that “we are not out of the woods yet”.