The Authorized Health Officer believes that elderly people residing in nursing homes must be vaccinated as a priority, when the first doses of vaccine arrive.
For this future campaign, the health authority defines "five progressive phases".
Elderly people residing in nursing homes must be vaccinated as a priority "upon the arrival of the very first doses" of vaccine against Covid-19, estimates the High Authority for Health (HAS) on Monday, "given the limited number of doses that will be available at the start of the vaccination campaign ".
For this future campaign, the health authority defines "five progressive phases" with a guideline: "to protect as a priority the most vulnerable and those who care for them", explained its president Dominique Le Guludec during a press point online.
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In addition to residents of nursing homes ("of the order of 750,000 people targeted"), are also concerned, by the first phase of vaccination, the employees of these establishments "who themselves present a risk of serious form (professionals of more 65 years old and / or with comorbidity (s)) ", ie 90,000 to 100,000 people, specifies the HAS.
These recommendations "will have to be updated and adapted according to the data on each vaccine, their effective availability and possible tensions on the supply".
Several phases according to age, profession ...
The second phase should concern all the elderly, starting with "people over 75, then people 65 to 74 years of age with comorbidity, then other people 65-74 years old", as well as "professionals in the health, medico-social and medical transport sector, prioritizing professionals over the age of 50" or presenting a risk factor of serious form.
In a third phase, would follow "all the people over 50 or under 50 but at risk of severe form because of their comorbidities" as well as "all professionals in the health sector and medico-social "and" professionals from sectors essential to the functioning of the country "(security or education for example).
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The HAS recommends expanding in a fourth step to "professionals whose work environment favors infection (regular contact with the public, closed environment ...)" and to "vulnerable or precarious people with a less favorable prognosis in the event of infection by Covid-19 (resident in a psychiatric hospital, homeless, inmates ...) ".
Finally, in a fifth and final phase, "provided that the vaccine dose allocations have been sufficient to vaccinate each of the priority populations, the vaccination of people over 18 years of age and without comorbidity could then be initiated".