Saint-Jean-de-Védas (France) (AFP)
The first "vaccidrive" in France, to get vaccinated against Covid-19 by appointment while staying in your car, opened Tuesday in Saint-Jean-de-Védas, on the outskirts of Montpellier, with an objective of 100 doses of per day.
"The main thing is to be vaccinated, if it's in the car it's cool", testifies Jean-Michel Sabatier, 67 years old, one of the first vaccinated of the "drive" which was not managed to register in other centers closer to his home in Agde (Hérault).
Françoise Murat, 59, who came to receive her first injection says she is reassured because the drive is "fast and you don't wait in rooms" by being "locked up" with other people.
"Everything is the same from a medical point of view but the context is more soothing" because "you stay in a known environment", confirms Doctor Lucas Rondepierre, general practitioner who ensures with other liberal caregivers the reception and the vaccination on the site.
"The initiative comes from the Saint-Jean clinic which proposed to the prefecture and the Regional Health Agency (ARS) a few weeks ago this project", explains to AFP Alexandre Pascal, departmental delegate of the ARS Occitanie.
"The idea is to offer an additional means of being vaccinated", he said, stressing that the "drive" whose endowment will be "modest" in its beginnings - 200 doses per week -, adjoins a center of general public vaccination "classic" at the clinic.
The configuration of the premises "lends itself to this experiment", explains to AFP Lamine Gharbi, president of the federation of private hospitalization and of the Cap Santé group, to which the Saint-Jean clinic is attached.
The establishment moved in 2020 from its former site in the center of Montpellier to settle in premises equipped with car parks, located along the A9 motorway.
"Today, we are seeing the appearance of nosocomial Covid infections so leaving our fellow citizens on the sidelines of the establishment should reassure", adds Mr. Gharbi who "hopes to reach 100 doses per day" in this new device.
On a practical level, candidates for vaccination arrive in the dedicated parking space and follow the same steps as in a conventional center: verification of registration, medical questionnaire, if necessary medical consultation, vaccination carried out by doctors and nurses Liberals paid by the session then monitoring time.
"The real big difference is that people do all of this in their vehicle," notes Pascal.
The people eligible for this vaccination are the same as in the general public centers: people aged 55 and over without comorbidities and people at high risk of life (transplanted, dialysed or under chemotherapy in particular).
"Vaccidrives" have already been set up in the United States or in Italy as part of the fight against the new coronavirus.
© 2021 AFP