Paris (AFP)
D-2 for a highly anticipated launch: the French vaccination campaign against Covid-19 will begin Sunday in Sevran, near Paris, and Dijon, with elderly people who have volunteered to be injected with the first doses of vaccine against a virus that has killed more than 62,000 people in the country.
After the United States, Great Britain, or more recently Switzerland, France will begin its vaccination campaign against Covid-19 two days after Christmas, like the entire European Union.
This "will begin in a small number of establishments for the elderly, and will gradually extend to the whole of France in January," Health Minister Olivier Véran announced Tuesday evening.
Thus, some residents of institutions for the elderly and their caregivers - designated priority public - should receive the first injection of the vaccine developed by the American Pfizer and the German BioNTech, the only one on the market today.
The first bottles are due to arrive on French soil on Saturday, after a trip under high security.
The next day, the vaccine will be administered to residents of two establishments, one located in Seine-Saint-Denis, a department which has paid a heavy price for the Covid (nearly 1,500 dead), the other in Bourgogne-Franche- County, one of the regions with the highest incidence rate of the virus.
These places are the geriatric center of Champmaillot, a specialized service of 60 beds for elderly people which depends on the Dijon University Hospital, and the long-term care unit of the René-Muret hospital in Sevran (AP-HP ).
Expected at the beginning of 2021, this first vaccination campaign on Sunday surprised a sector which has taken the full brunt of the health crisis and whose staff are running out of steam on the eve of the holidays.
Vaccination against Covid-19 is not compulsory and is voluntary.
Performed on medical prescription, it must be preceded by a pre-vaccination consultation to detect any contraindications, allergies or infections, and obtain the consent of the person.
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If the person cannot give an "informed" consent, his legal representative, his "person of confidence", or failing that a person of his family will be able to make the choice for him, indicates the vaccination protocol sent by the Ministry of Health to all nursing homes.
Without an agreement, there will be no vaccination.
According to data released Friday evening by Public Health France, the Covid has killed 159 people in hospitals in 24 hours (after 292 Thursday), bringing the death toll to 62,427 (including 43,232 in hospital) since the start of the pandemic .
Health authorities fear that the end of the year celebrations will lead to a rebound in the epidemic, by promoting social promiscuity.
Warning against an "obvious third wave", emergency physician Patrick Pelloux called on patients "who are potentially serious and who have so far escaped the coronavirus" to be "vaccinated".
The arrival in the EU of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was validated on Monday by the European Medicines Agency.
The French green light was then issued Thursday by the High Authority for Health (HAS).
The vaccine "can be used in people 16 years and over", "because of its efficacy and its satisfactory tolerance profile", said the health authority on Christmas Eve.
This product, called Comirnaty, is "very well tolerated", with "very few serious side effects", she said.
After Sunday's experience, larger vaccine deliveries are scheduled for early January.
The campaign for the 7,000 nursing homes in France, their residents and their caregivers likely to develop serious forms of Covid will not really start on a large scale until the beginning of 2021.
Vaccine arrivals are staggered for production and delivery constraints, but also for conservation, the Pfizer BioNTech having to be stored at -80 ° C.
This week, the possibility of seeing certain trips made conditional on vaccination, mentioned in a recent bill, provoked fiery reactions from the opposition, fearing a restriction of freedoms.
To the point that the government postponed the examination of the text until later, not "before being out of the crisis", Olivier Véran said on Tuesday.
© 2020 AFP