Vaccination is accelerating in France ... but everyone at their own pace.
Overseas territories are still at the bottom of the ranking of regions for the rate of the population already vaccinated against Covid-19.
0.2% of residents received a first dose in Guyana, 0.23% in Reunion, 0.29% in Guadeloupe and 0.37% in Martinique, according to figures communicated this Friday evening by the Directorate General of Health and compared to the number of inhabitants communicated by INSEE.
In the thirteen metropolitan regions, this percentage varies from 1.26% for the Pays de la Loire to 2.14% in Bourgogne Franche-Comté.
Across the whole of France, it is over 1.4%.
So, how to explain such a gap?
The handicap of distance and storage
Asked during a situation update Tuesday, January 12, the Ministry of Health had put forward logistical difficulties.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, the only one distributed overseas to date, must in particular be transported and stored at a temperature of -70 degrees.
On site, the Army had also sent two freezers from the end of December to Fort-de-France (Martinique) and Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe).
Specially equipped planes then transport the doses from the metropolis.
These may be "military or airline flights", specifies the General Directorate of Health.
But the most remote parts of the territories remain more difficult to serve.
LP Infographic
It is for this reason that vaccination began later overseas than in mainland France.
The first injections took place there between January 7 and 18.
But some areas like Mayotte have not even started their campaign yet.
In Guyana, the first injection was carried out on January 13.
"It is not today that we discover that these vaccines must be stored at 70 or 80 degrees", gets carried away Gabriel Serville, deputy of this small border territory of Brazil.
The elected Communist castigates “failures” on the part of the government, which “reminds him of what we experienced in 2020, with hydroalcoholic gel and masks”.
VIDEO. Dry ice, “super-refrigerators”… How will the Pfizer vaccine purchased by France be transported?
The health authorities sweep aside these accusations.
“When we said that overseas would be at the heart of the vaccination strategy, some said that these territories would be guinea pigs.
Now we are being criticized for not doing enough, ”a ministerial adviser lashed out.
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The government is now relying heavily on the Moderna vaccine, which needs to be stored at only -20 degrees and can be stored longer after thawing, then on AstraZeneca.
"The arrival of new vaccines with more classic characteristics will allow, a priori, easier distribution in overseas territories," agrees the DGS.
Fewer seniors
In some of these areas, another demographic reason may explain why the vaccination started less quickly.
The proportion of people aged 75 and over in the population is 0.9% in Mayotte, 2.1% in Guyana and 5.2% in Réunion.
But it exceeds 7% in each of the metropolitan regions, according to data from INSEE.
However, the only categories that can be vaccinated for the moment are residents of nursing homes, caregivers aged at least 50 years and, since Monday, January 18, people over 75 years of age or suffering from a chronic disease.
[#Vaccination #sxm #stbarth] 🦠
The vaccination campaign is officially launched for the northern islands.
Health personnel Ehand residents in nursing homes ont have priority for this first phase.
🗓 Appointments are opened via the TAP RIPOSTE platform.
pic.twitter.com/kVC97qhhXD
- ARS GUADELOUPE (@ars_guadeloupe) January 21, 2021
"The Regional Health Agency tells me that the doses it received and ordered were primarily reserved for nursing home residents and the staff around them," said the senator from Guyana, Georges Patient.
Paradoxically, however, there does not seem to be a shortage since many slots for getting vaccinated appear to be available these days on the booking platforms listed by the sante.fr site.
Time slots available at Cayenne hospital / Screenshot taken Thursday, January 21
Well aware of the much younger age of the population of his territory, the elected representative of Guyana calls to "take into account this reality and accelerate the vaccination campaign for other categories of people".
Especially since he is concerned about the spread across the border of the Brazilian variant, considered more worrying than the most widespread strain currently.
Objective of 40,000 vaccinated in early February
In Guadeloupe, LREM deputy Olivier Serva also points to "a more important form of mistrust vis-à-vis the vaccine".
As the territory was overall less affected by the pandemic than the metropolis, the inhabitants seemed to him much less concerned by the vaccine.
“But with the arrival of variants, behavior is changing and people are realizing that the benefit / risk ratio is important,” he notes.
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The entourage of the Minister of Overseas Sébastien Lecornu ensures not to panic too much.
While acknowledging that “the vaccination rhythm is different for the moment” but that it will “accelerate”, he sets himself the goal of 40,000 people being vaccinated “by the beginning of February”.
"For the moment, we have no particular alert suggesting that this will not be reached", adds to the ministry, while the counter barely reached 5,000 this Friday.
On the whole of France, the government has bet since the start of the campaign on a million people vaccinated at the end of January.
This goal is already almost achieved this Friday evening.
