It is a new stage in the race against time engaged against the virus.
The general public vaccination campaign against Covid-19 officially begins this Monday.
Sign of the craze for the precious serum, more than a million appointments for the two injections were taken on Friday.
Who is concerned ?
Residents of retirement homes and caregivers over the age of 50 will be added from this Monday all people over 75 years old, or some 5 million potential vaccine candidates.
The campaign is also expanding to nearly 800,000 people, regardless of age, suffering from "high risk" pathologies: cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, chronic renal failure, people with trisomy 21 or those transplanted.
Isabelle, a 40-year-old Parisian who has just undergone a third kidney transplant, is now one of the priority audiences.
Yet she will still have to wait.
“My last operation took place a week ago and my immune system has gone down to zero,” she explains.
So the doctors prefer that I wait a bit before getting vaccinated.
"
This mother, who already had the Covid eight months ago, does not know if she still has enough antibodies not to contract it again.
“This vaccine does not inspire me more fear than that.
I am even rather confident, ”she confides.
According to an Ifop poll, which we unveiled this Saturday, 54% of French people now want to be immunized.
This is 15 points more than in December.
Where to do it?
Hospitals, multipurpose rooms, clinics, gymnasiums, house of associations, health… 833 centers are now operational throughout France, announced the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
This is where candidates for vaccination will be welcomed from Monday.
Marcelle, 85, will be received from 2 p.m. in a hall of the covered market in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine), her city.
“I called the phone number that the town hall gave us on Thursday morning and I was able to make an appointment straight away,” says the octogenarian.
I am 100% for this vaccine, I who, in 1958, fell ill with the Asian flu.
At that time, it took two years to get one!
"
How to register ?
Not everyone was as lucky as Marcelle.
If more than a million appointments have been recorded, many candidates are left behind.
“I tried to call different vaccination centers in my department but it's saturated, plague Babette, 79, retired from Ris-Orangis (Essonne), in the Paris suburbs.
I have the impression that it is a little badly organized.
Why do the public authorities not contact us?
After all, they have the names and ages of the people who can now get the vaccine.
I am a little nervous, because I am a person at risk, because of my diabetes and my age.
Suddenly, I am even more careful and in the meantime, I try not to mingle too much with people.
"
VIDEO. Covid-19: "4 million French people" could be "vaccinated at the end of February", says Véran
“From Friday, about twenty patients called me to find out how they could get vaccinated,” explains Jean-Marcel Mourgues, general practitioner in Lot-et-Garonne and vice-president of the National Council of the Order of Physicians.
The appointment capacities were filled very quickly to the point that there was no longer availability in many places
from Friday.
"
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The practitioner advises everyone to be patient and to consult the Sante.fr site to obtain the vaccination locations by department, to use the telephone numbers indicated and, in the event of no response, to go through the platforms. online booking forms like Doctolib, Maiia and Keldoc.
Will there be something for everyone?
The Minister of Health promises that "more than a million vaccinations will be carried out" by the end of January, and between 2.4 and 4 million by the end of February.
But the public authorities remain subject to the vagaries of production.
"After a difficult start, the essential problem of this campaign will be to ensure the delivery of doses to all centers", judge Jean-Marcel Mourgues.
France crossed the symbolic milestone of 70,000 deaths this Saturday while contaminations continue at a steady pace.
"Vaccination is now the only way out," said the doctor.