France’s “Breton variant”, B.1.616, was added to the WHO list of Variants of Interest this week.  Key Spike mutations are listed as G142 deletion; D66H; Y144V; D215G; V483A; D614G; H655Y; G669S; Q949R; and N1187D 

WHO: COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update 

France: Breton coronavirus variant B.1.616 – 42 cases in total, 18 deaths

France: Breton coronavirus variant B.1.616 – “A new Sars-Cov-2 variant poorly detected by RT-PCR on nasopharyngeal samples, with high lethality”

France: Breton variant B.1.616 – 37 cases & 16 deaths with just 9% of cases detected by first RT-PCR coronavirus test