Covid-19: in France, vaccination coverage varies widely depending on the region

People wait to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in a vaccination center installed at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, in the suburbs of Paris, on April 6, 2021. AP - Thomas Samson

Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

While vaccination in France is progressing, it does so unevenly across the country.

This is shown by a map of French vaccination published in the newspaper

Le Monde on

Monday, July 26.

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This map designed by health geographer Emmanuel Vigneron, professor at the University of Montpellier, is based on a comparative vaccination index calculated using health insurance data and removes the age factor, thus making it possible to reveal different geographic and social divides in vaccination.

As soon as we lay our eyes

on the map

, the main divide in vaccination coverage in France is obvious: a diagonal that opposes the north-west of France, much more vaccinated, to the south-east where vaccination rates remain almost everywhere below the national average.

Among the least vaccinated areas, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region is the one that lags the most significantly, with the overseas territories, while regions such as Brittany record vaccination rates well above the national average. .

Another divide that appears on this map is that of cities and their outskirts.

Urban areas are more vaccinated than rural areas.

This is particularly the case in Dijon and Clermont-Ferrand: the further away from urban centers, the lower the vaccination.

The analysis also shows a significant difference between rich and poor areas.

A disparity that can be seen even in the capital.

The most popular districts of Paris, for example, tend to be less vaccinated.

Disparities which represent a "challenge" according to Emmanuel Vigneron.

For the health geographer, different causes can explain these disparities.

The link with socio-economic criteria appears obvious [...] Perhaps there is also a sort of reluctance towards a vertical discourse that comes down from Paris.

Emmanuel Vigneron, health geographer

The milestone of 40 million first-time vaccinated has been crossed in France.

This is what Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday on twitter on the sidelines of his trip to French Polynesia.

In total, 4 million injections for the past two weeks, while the epidemic is on the rise and only 48% of French people are fully

vaccinated

. 

Concern is growing in the face of a possible fourth wave linked to the progression of the Delta variant and that Parliament has just reached an agreement on the principle of the

health pass

- the Constitutional Council is due to give its opinion on this issue on August 5. .

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