Paris (AFP)
On the eve of a new boost on the vaccination against Covid-19, open on Monday to over 50s, caution remains in order, due to persistent mistrust of AstraZeneca and a health situation that is still "worrying".
As of Monday, all French people aged 50 and over will be able to be vaccinated against Covid-19, unconditionally, five days earlier than initially planned by the government.
From Wednesday, injections will also be accessible to people over 18 when a time slot will be available the day before for the next day on appointment booking platforms such as Doctolib, so as not to waste any dose.
But the campaign faces several pitfalls, including the continuing distrust of the population towards the AstraZeneca vaccine, of which only 75% of the doses received were injected, according to figures released last Sunday.
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"The authorities are all unanimous, in France as elsewhere," he said, calling on the population to be "vaccinated with all vaccines, in particular with AstraZeneca".
In total, AstraZeneca has resulted in "30 cases, including 9 deaths" of rare thromboses in France, out of more than 3,855,000 doses administered on April 29, according to the French Medicines Agency (ANSM).
If the goal of 30 million French people vaccinated in mid-June set by the government remains uncertain, the bar of 20 million people who received at least one injection in mid-May (against more than 17.6 million currently) should be reached "on May 17," said the boss of Doctolib, Stanislas Niox-Chateau.
According to him, "we now vaccinate just in time" but "the limiting factor remains the number of doses".
Another brake, vaccination "two to three times" less "on weekends and holidays", a tendency to fight with the approach of several bridges (Ascension, Pentecost), insists the business manager, who also calls to "rely more" on liberal doctors and pharmacists.
The vaccination campaign could also suffer from the summer holidays, due to a lack of caregivers or the six to twelve week delay between two injections depending on the vaccines, a source of organizational problems for some.
"We are talking about this second dose with our patients and with the ministry," Jacques Battistoni told the Parisian on Sunday.
Assures him that he already "on average 3 out of 10 people who do not show up because they have an apprehension, that they have shifted or planned to do so elsewhere. The idea, this summer, will be to give a little flexibility "by asking" the French that the changes remain exceptional ".
Until then, the government intends to continue the gradual lifting of health restrictions, including the reopening of non-essential stores, cultural places and terraces on May 19.
- rebound this summer?
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He will submit Monday to deputies his plan to end the health crisis, certain provisions, such as the health pass, are cringe among parliamentarians.
But the health context remains tense, despite the slow decline in the number of hospitalized patients, especially in intensive care units (5,005 on Saturday, against more than 6,000 on April 26), and the drop in the rate of deaths, which fell to 176 on Saturday, for a total of 106,306 dead.
The number of contaminations remains high, (20,745 new cases recorded in 24 hours on Saturday), far from the threshold, finally never reached, of 5,000, retained by the government to come out of confinement in mid-December.
Twenty doctors and researchers thus deplore in a forum a progressive deconfinement "guided more by political designs than by a health objective", denouncing the "vague criteria" associated with a possible return / maintenance of restrictions.
"According to the Institut Pasteur, only an optimistic scenario would make it possible to avoid an epidemic rebound during the summer", they underline, recalling the still "worrying" situation mentioned on April 21 by the scientific council.
And while elsewhere in the world the pandemic is worsening, France has just extended to seven additional countries (Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Qatar) the mandatory quarantine on arrival on the territory, already in force notably for India and Brazil.
© 2021 AFP