Faced with the increase in contaminations linked to the spread of the Delta variant in France, the Head of State announced the establishment of the compulsory health pass to access leisure and cultural places, then to restaurants, bars and long transport. distance this summer.
As of this speech, the platforms of medical appointments had to manage, on their respective sites, an increased traffic.
An influx that continued throughout the week, with peaks of appointments never reached since the start of the epidemic.
Their figures give the measure of the electroshock caused by Emmanuel Macron's speech on July 12.
Praised daily by thousands of French people for making medical appointments, Doctolib, Maiia or KelDoc recorded record data all this week.
By announcing the extension of the compulsory health pass from July 21 for places of culture and leisure, then for bars and restaurants in early August, the Head of State seems to have obtained the desired effect: a rush for vaccines anti-Covid.
But for these medical sites, which over the months have become one of the essential links in the vaccination chain, this evening of July 12 also turned into a technical challenge.
Connection peaks
For the leader of the French market - Doctolib - as for its competitors, the results are the same.
“In recent weeks, appointments and slots open for a first injection tended to decrease,” explains Matthieu Becamel, spokesperson for the Maiia platform, an entity of the Cegedim group, in the preamble.
A gradual decline followed for all these players by a historic peak.
"In a few minutes Monday evening, we recorded 7.5 million connections on Doctolib, and for the busiest period, we recorded up to 20,000 appointments per minute", specifies the deputy general manager of the site, Philippe Vimard, also in charge of the technical teams.
For Maiia, 300,000 connections were counted on Monday, "that's 10 times more than on a normal day," said Matthieu Becamel.
Massive appointments
An increased attendance which resulted in massive appointment bookings.
“At midnight, we recorded 150,000 slots reserved for first and second injections,” he adds.
On the Doctolib side, more than 870,000 appointments were made that day for a first injection.
Another player in the sector, the KelDoc site announced that 270,000 French people had reserved a new slot in 24 hours, three times more than the previous peak of May 10.
And this dynamic continued throughout the week. “In three days, 2.6 million French people made an appointment on our site. This is seven times more than last week and twice more than during our record recorded in May, after the announcement of the opening to vaccination for those over 18 years old. It was quite intense and exceptional, ”smiles Philippe Vimard. Ditto for Maiia, since 200,000 appointments were booked Tuesday July 13, then 150,000 Wednesday July 14.
However, Guillaume Rozier, the founder of the Vitemadose site, which aggregates in real time the appointments available on all these platforms, nuance.
“Today, the traffic on our site is 8 times higher than that of a day in June.
It's important, but it's not monstrous either.
By way of comparison, we are far from the record of May 12, with the opening of vaccination for all, ”he says.
A gradual rise in power
For all the players, the openness to vaccination at each new age group served as a dress rehearsal. “We took measures from the start of the vaccination campaign to make our site as elastic as possible and to be able to manage these peaks of traffic and adapt to demand. In April, to anticipate the opening to everyone over 18, we implemented a new feature: the waiting list. As with an online ticket office, Internet users are told the waiting time before being able to access the available slots, ”explains Philippe Vimard. A preparation which did not prevent its technical teams from feeling Monday evening a certain "apprehension" mixed with "excitement".
Even we weren't ready, but that's good news!
😅 # Macron20h #VaccinationCovid pic.twitter.com/jYA7TCxelk
- Doctolib (@doctolib) July 12, 2021
This adaptability of the sites is fundamental, believes Matthieu Becamel, spokesperson for Maiia: “If you do not prepare the load to come on your servers, the risk is that the site will collapse.
From a technical point of view, our developers were on the bridge and were following the situation in real time to make sure the site held up ”.
"No major concern" was noted on the evening of July 12, for his part said the deputy general manager of Doctolib, apart from "times when the waiting times to have access to the appointment slots varied from important way, ”he admits.
Geographic disparities
If the month of May had generated particularly long waiting times between the date of the appointment and the day of the injection, this new peak linked to the announcement of the extension of the health pass did not occur. not translated into a shortage of slots. Guillaume Rozier explains: “In May, unlike the current period, there were far fewer doses available. At the time, Internet users did 5 to 10 searches to find a date. Currently, we tend to oscillate between one and two searches. This Friday for example, there are more than 200,000 slots available for the next 50 days. "
Despite these stocks of vaccines larger than in May, the average waiting times to obtain your first injection have mechanically lengthened this week with the increase in demand. “On Monday, we had an 11-day wait for our first injection. Tuesday, it took 15 days. And Wednesday, we went to 17 days ”, supports Philippe Vimard, Doctolib. And these times vary by region. “Overall, there is more availability in Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France and Auvergne Rhône-Alpes,” continues Guillaume Rozier. On the map posted online on its site, three departments - Vendée, Deux-Sèvres and Indre - did not have any slot available this Friday.
It remains to be seen whether the available stocks will be sufficient to cover this dynamic.
In his speech, the Head of State wanted to be reassuring: "Nine million doses await you today, which have not yet been injected, and our orders continue to arrive," he concluded. .
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