FILE - Funeral house employees drag a coffin on a trolley as they arrive at the University Emergency Hospital morgue to take a COVID-19 victim for burial, in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries. With infections spiking again despite nearly two years of restrictions, the health crisis increasingly is pitting citizen against citizen the vaccinated against the unvaccinated. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)FILE - A display showing an animated depiction of Mona Lisa hangs in a coffee shop window as an employee wearing a mask cleans up shortly after closing hours in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)FILE - Medical staff stand outside a mobile COVID-19 vaccination team set up by Health Ministry in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece on Tuesday, Oct. 26. 2021. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos, File)FILE - Healthcare workers opposing mandatory coronavirus vaccinations and the suspension from work for those who refuse to get the shots, chant slogans during a protest outside the Greek Parliament , in central Athens, on Wednesday, Nov 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)FILE - People hold a large banner that reads "No to Vaccination - Our Children are not your guinea pigs" during a protest against vaccinations, the introduction of the green pass and COVID-19 related restrictions in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)FILE - Members of the medical staff place the body of a COVID-19 victim in a coffin together with funeral house employees at the University Emergency Hospital morgue in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)FILE - Funeral house employees drag a coffin on a trolley as they arrive at the University Emergency Hospital morgue to take a COVID-19 victim for burial, in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)FILE - A young patient receives the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 in Vienna, Austria, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries. With infections spiking again despite nearly two years of restrictions, the health crisis increasingly is pitting citizen against citizen the vaccinated against the unvaccinated.(AP Photo/Lisa Leutner, File)A man works on stalls for the Christmas Market in Brussels, Friday Nov. 19, 2021. In Brussels a 60-foot Christmas tree was placed in the center of the city's stunning Grand Place on Thursday Nov. 18 but a decision on whether the Belgian capital's festive market can go ahead will depend on the development of the COVID-19 virus surge. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)FILE - People queue in front of a small vaccination center of the local health department in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. The numbers of Corona infections have been rising again in Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)FILE - A man holds a banner during a protest against vaccinations, the introduction of the green pass and COVID-19 related restrictions in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries. With infections spiking again despite nearly two years of restrictions, the health crisis increasingly is pitting citizen against citizen the vaccinated against the unvaccinated. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)FILE - A pedestrian wearing a face mask to protect against coronavirus, walks in front of a mural, at a metro station in Athens, Greece, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)People stand near an undecorated Christmas Tree in Grand Place in Brussels, Friday Nov. 19, 2021. In Brussels the 60-foot Christmas tree was placed in the center of the city's stunning Grand Place on Thursday but a decision on whether the Belgian capital's festive market can go ahead will depend on the development of the COVID-19 virus surge. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)FILE - Demonstrators gather to protest against the government restriction measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 during celebrations of the 32nd anniversary of the pro-democratic Velvet Revolution that ended communist rule in 1989 in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries.(AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)FILE - A member of the medical staff puts on an extra pair of gloves in the COVID-19 ICU unit of the Marius Nasta National Pneumology Institute in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021. This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)FILE - A medical worker is seen through a plastic panel in a bus that will serve as a mobile COVID-19 vaccination unit in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru, File)FILE - Police officers check the vaccination status of visitors during a patrol on a Christmas market in Vienna, Austria, Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries. With infections spiking again despite nearly two years of restrictions, the health crisis increasingly is pitting citizen against citizen the vaccinated against the unvaccinated.(AP Photo/Lisa Leutner, File)FILE - A woman holds a banner during an anti-government and anti-restrictions protest organised by the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians or AUR, in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)FILE - A man breathes through an oxygen mask at the COVID-19 ICU unit of the Marius Nasta National Pneumology Institute in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru, File)FILE - A member of the medical staff walks in a crowded COVID-19 isolation room at the University Emergency Hospital in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, Oct. 22, 2021. This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
FILE - Funeral house employees drag a coffin on a trolley as they arrive at the University Emergency Hospital morgue to take a COVID-19 victim for burial, in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries. With infections spiking again despite nearly two years of restrictions, the health crisis increasingly is pitting citizen against citizen the vaccinated against the unvaccinated. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
PARIS – French authorities are waiting Monday for laboratory confirmation of eight suspected cases of the new variant of the coronavirus, involving people who traveled recently to southern Africa.
Testing already conducted determined that the travelers were positive for the virus but not for one of its previous variants. Follow-up genetic testing was being done to see if they were infected with the new omicron variant.
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The Health Ministry said Sunday night that results could take several days.
If confirmed, they would be France’s first known cases of the omicron variant.
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