Nurses will be able to prescribe and inject Covid-19 vaccines themselves from Friday.

An opinion from the HAS, to be published on Friday, also concerns the authorization of new professions to perform injections.

The Minister of Health Olivier Véran mentioned dentists or veterinarians. 

Nurses will be able from Friday not only to inject vaccines against Covid-19 but also to prescribe it themselves, while dentists and veterinarians could also be mobilized, announced Thursday the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.

The mission of "nurses (...) who play a major role (...) in the success of vaccination (...) will be further amplified from tomorrow with the possibility which is now open to them by the High health authority to prescribe the vaccine themselves, "said the minister at the weekly press conference on the health situation.

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Olivier Véran had declared in recent days to have seized the independent health authority on this possibility, which was demanded in particular by the National Order of Nurses and the federation of patient associations France Assos Santé.

The opinion was "sent to the minister this afternoon" (Thursday) and will be "published tomorrow morning" (Friday), the High Authority for Health (HAS) told AFP.

Until now, nurses could inject Covid vaccines but only after prescription by a doctor.

This new authorization "will allow them in particular to go to the most vulnerable populations and to vaccinate in the homes of the French," added Olivier Véran.

Empowerment of new professions

The opinion of the HAS also relates to the authorization of new professions to inject vaccines against Covid.

This has already been the case since March 12 for firefighters who have undergone specific training.

"The High Authority has widened the list of people who can potentially inject a vaccine, with 250,000 more people," said Olivier Véran, referring to dentists or even veterinarians.

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The minister also called on "all health students, and all young retired health professionals to lend a hand for vaccination and in hospitals when they can".

Soon more than 400,000 injections per day

In the immediate future, "the limiting element of our vaccination campaign" is not the number of potential vaccinators but "the deliveries of vaccines which are made to us", he admitted, however, even if "this limit is evolving in the right direction ".

"We will soon exceed 400,000 injections per day, then 500,000 injections per day," assured the minister.

To date, 7 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, of which "more than 2.5 have received their second injection," he added.