Paris (AFP)
Vaccination accelerated Saturday in France, while Pas-de-Calais is living its first weekend again confined to stem the Covid-19 epidemic, "still worrying" according to Public Health France.
Faced with the spread of the virus and variants, mass vaccination operations have been launched in several regions where the virus circulates most actively.
This weekend are targeted first those over 75 years, more likely to develop severe forms of the disease.
Across the Ile-de-France region, more than 100 vaccination centers were opened this weekend to sell more than 50,000 doses.
In an ephemeral center in the north-east of Paris, installed in the cultural center on 104, Alain Serra, 76, welcomes the "good organization".
"I had ten minutes of waiting and even quite a bit!".
"We are going to vaccinate 2,000 people" in two days, "it was not easy to take up this challenge, that we are asked to mobilize as many doctors and nurses (...), but I think it works" , notes Dr Serge Smadja of SOS doctor.
- "Find a normal life" -
To avoid gatherings in Paris, the ban on alcohol consumption has been extended to new areas, including the quays of the Seine, where hundreds of Parisians were enjoying the sun on Saturday afternoon.
Overall, the instructions were applied, but the police evacuated the platforms in the middle of the afternoon, the large crowd not always respecting the barrier gestures.
In Haute-Garonne, the goal is to inject 5,000 first doses.
In the mobile center installed in the Toulouse Ernest-Wallon stadium, where a dozen people lined up, Laurence explains that she is "at risk".
"I have been looking forward to this moment. I hope to return to a normal life. I am not wondering whether the AstraZeneca vaccine or not. What other choice do I have?"
Pas-de-Calais opened new vaccination centers this weekend, with more than 10,000 doses to administer, as in Lens for example.
"The population is there, things are going well," PS mayor Sylvain Robert told AFP.
Four military hospitals have opened vaccination centers in Metz, Toulon, Saint-Mandé (Val-de-Marne) and Villenave d'Ornon (Gironde).
The government's target: 10 million first injections in mid-April, 20 million in mid-May and 30 million this summer.
Currently, less than 3.4 million French people have received at least one dose.
As of Thursday, this was the case for 5.1% of the French population.
The figures are low in some of the 21 departments "under enhanced surveillance": 2.8% in Seine-Saint-Denis, 3% in Seine-et-Marne, 4.1% in Pas-de-Calais or even 4, 4% in the Rhône.
The government and the College of Physicians are also concerned about the low vaccination rate among caregivers, 30% so far.
Prime Minister Jean Castex, who was to go in the afternoon to an ephemeral vaccination center in Essonne, promised that the government would "put the package on vaccination" in March and April because the next few weeks will remain "very sensitive".
- Regional disparities -
The Pas-de-Calais, it was put under cover in the hope of curbing the epidemic, following Dunkirk and Nice already confined at the weekend.
For more than two million people, this means a derogatory certificate for any movement, and the limit of 5 km and one hour around the home.
It is also an additional difficulty for businesses in the Pas-de-Calais department, which like everywhere else were trying to catch up on Saturdays for sales that they did not achieve during the week by being forced to close at 6:00 p.m.
Non-essential ones with 5,000 m² or more of usable space have even been closed by prefectural decree.
"I am a caregiver so I had the chance to be vaccinated very quickly" and despite everything, "I have to wear the mask, I have to be confined", fumed with AFPTV Marie-Alice Ferraira .
"My message is + get vaccinated, that we can get out of all this and as quickly as possible + because everyone has had enough."
The executive justifies the measure by the strong tension on hospital capacities, filled to "90%" according to the prefect, and the prevalence of the English variant of the virus, more contagious and detected in more than two thirds of cases in the department.
"Territorial disparities are significant and require local adaptation of epidemic control measures," Public Health France recalled on Friday, with the regions "most affected" Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, Hauts -de-France and Ile-de-France.
© 2021 AFP