Sevran (AFP)
A 78-year-old woman was the first person vaccinated in France against Covid-19 on Sunday, at René-Muret hospital in Sevran, Seine-Saint-Denis, according to an AFP journalist on the spot.
"I am moved," said this woman, Mauricette, a former household help who suffers from chronic pathologies, vaccinated around 11:00 am in the long-term care unit of this establishment of the Public Assistance - Hospitals of Paris ( AP-HP).
It was then a 65-year-old cardiologist, Dr Jean-Jacques Monsuez, who was vaccinated shortly before 11:20 a.m.
"We must put an end to this epidemic, it kills too many people and flattens the economy," responded this doctor after receiving the injection.
France has already paid a very heavy demographic price (more than 62,500 deaths according to the latest official data), but also economic and social toll to the coronavirus.
A second dose of the vaccine should be administered 21 days after the first injection of the product, received on a voluntary basis.
About twenty elderly people and caregivers must be administered the vaccine called Comirnaty on Sunday during the symbolic launch of the French vaccine campaign, in Sevran then at the geriatric center of Champmaillot, dependent on the CHU of Dijon.
In Sevran, the first two vaccinated were by a nurse in front of journalists and under the eyes of the directors general of the AP-HP, Martin Hirsch, and the regional health agency (ARS) Île-de-France , Aurélien Rousseau.
The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, was not present.
"It is not the minister's place but that of caregivers, with their patients. (...) Our political choice is to base the campaign on doctors and caregivers. This is the key to the confidence and efficiency, "he argued in an interview in the Journal du dimanche.
The government has set by the end of February the goal of one million vaccinated among the oldest and most vulnerable, individuals and caregivers, in 7,000 nursing homes and other similar establishments.
He aims for 15 million vaccinated in the summer, but to reach this figure will have to remove reluctance in the face of vaccination, which is important in the French population according to opinion studies.
© 2020 AFP