A new strain of coronavirus that has appeared in southern France has worried scientists.

The discovery came after 12 patients in the same region tested positive and their tests showed an "atypical combination", writes Express.

Experts suspect the case may have come from Cameroon, as the first infected person arrived from a trip from that country.

The experts said they had identified "46 mutations" in this variant, named B.1.640.2.

His presence was first discovered by experts at the IHU Mediterranee Infection in Marseille.

Earlier this month, they announced on Twitter that they had discovered a new variant in patients with covidium from Foralkie, in the Upper Provence region.

What makes the variant more dangerous is its ability to reproduce due to the number of mutations it has compared to the original virus. It remains to be seen in which category this new variant will fall.

France reported 219.126 new infections on Saturday, becoming the sixth country in the world to exceed the 10 million registered cases of Covid.