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.

On Saturday, the number of patients in intensive care was stable at 3,689.

"Already this Saturday at 5.30 pm, 220,000 French people have been vaccinated, more than double from last Saturday. We continue tomorrow!", Tweeted the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.

Across the Ile-de-France region, more than 100 vaccination centers were opened this weekend to sell more than 50,000 doses.

"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.

- Alcohol prohibited -

To avoid gatherings in Paris, the ban on consuming alcohol has been extended to new areas, including the quays of the Seine, evacuated in the afternoon because a large crowd was gathered there without the barrier gestures being always respected.

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 was looking forward to this moment. I hope to return to a normal life."

Pas-de-Calais opened new vaccination centers this weekend, with more than 10,000 doses to administer, as in Lens for example.

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.

- Tense situation -

Prime Minister Jean Castex, who visited in the afternoon in an ephemeral vaccination center in Essonne, recalled that "the health situation remains worrying and tense" but that "we must absolutely everything do to (...) avoid "total or partial re-containment.

Pas-de-Calais has been placed under cover in the hope of curbing the epidemic, according to 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 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 Saturday 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.

In total since the start of the epidemic, the number of deaths has risen to 88,444.

© 2021 AFP