Strasbourg (AFP)
One million French people have been vaccinated against Covid-19, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Saturday after a trip to Strasbourg, where he had notably exchanged with students.
"To all our caregivers, to all our elected officials, to all the staff and agents of the prefectures, regional health agencies and health establishments, to all those who join forces in this exceptional vaccination campaign: thank you" , he then posted on Twitter.
The government had set itself the goal of reaching one million French people vaccinated by the end of January.
Saturday morning, the Minister of Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher had indicated on France Inter that France aspired to vaccinate "15 million people" by June.
"I am reasonably confident that this target will be exceeded," she added.
For its part, the High Authority for Health (HAS) described Saturday as "reasonable" the possibility of spacing the injection of the two doses of the Covid vaccines by six weeks (instead of three to four weeks currently), in order to protect the most vulnerable and face the "epidemic outbreak".
The extension of the injection time will make it possible to "accelerate the administration of the first dose to the most vulnerable people", that is, according to the projections of the HAS, at least 700,000 additional people "who would be protected by the vaccine" on the first month of application of this measure.
At the individual level, "the risk of loss of efficacy" of the vaccine between two doses "seems limited", indicates the HAS.
© 2021 AFP