Boulogne-sur-Mer (AFP)
The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, put forward on Sunday a "craze which is mounting among caregivers" to be vaccinated against Covid-19, immediately excluding any vaccination obligation for these professionals.
After a visit to a vaccination center in Boulogne-sur-Mer, the minister said he was "convinced that the rate of adherence to the vaccination of caregivers will join the general rate of the French to vaccination".
In a letter released Friday, he called on caregivers to be vaccinated "quickly" in the name of "collective security".
The seven orders of health professions echoed this call in a statement made public Sunday, calling "with one voice all caregivers to be vaccinated" against Covid-19, stressing that it is of an "ethical duty" to "curb the spread of the epidemic".
Asked about a proposal by the LREM deputy of Pas-de-Calais, Jean-Pierre Pont, to make vaccination compulsory for caregivers, the minister deemed this approach "legitimate", but indicated to favor "for the moment dialogue and conviction".
He welcomed the fact that the "exceptional effort" made this weekend to speed up vaccinations throughout France made it possible to carry out 220,000 injections on Saturday "against 80,000-85,000 usually on Saturdays".
"I hope there will be at least more than 100,000 today," he added.
"All elected officials are asking that we have more vaccines, I myself ask that we have more vaccines," he added.
In terms of territorial allocation, "when there is an inequity that is created, whatever the reasons, we must obviously correct it", he added, while the contributions of vaccines were reinforced in Hauts-de-France after many elected officials denounced a delay.
This effort "allows us to reduce the regional differences formed at the start of vaccination," said Benoît Vallet, director of the Hauts-de-France regional health agency.
He said that at his request, and to "catch up on the Hauts-de-France (...) we will have 6,000 doses every week from this week", which represents "about 10% of vaccinations in addition possible every week ".
© 2021 AFP