Once the handful of Sunday injections have been carried out, it is a vaccination campaign very dependent on the pace of deliveries of vaccine doses manufactured by Pfizer in Belgium, their storage and then their availability, which will be able to begin.
More massive arrivals - 1.6 million doses - are expected in the coming days and from the beginning of January.
They must be stored at - 80 degrees in the freezers of a dozen relay hospitals distributed throughout France, before they can be dispatched, in refrigerated cases that can keep them for only 5 days between 2 and 8 degrees , to the vaccination sites and as needed.
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The residents of nursing homes and patients hospitalized in long-term care units, but also the health personnel who work with them, will be the first concerned, from “the second week of January”, estimates Florence Arnaiz-Maumé, general delegate. of the Synerpa private establishments union.
This first phase, which should concern approximately one million French people, must be spread over 6 to 8 weeks to take into account the time limit, 21 days maximum, before which a second “booster” injection must be carried out.
Mandatory medical prescription
A second phase, still dependent on delivery rates, will begin in mid-February with the aim of vaccinating 14 million French people: those over 75, then those over 65, then those over 50 with health problems. health or working in the medical sector.
A third and final phase, which will begin only at the end of spring according to the timetable envisaged by the Ministry of Health, will concern the rest of the population over the age of 18.
Here again, some will have priority, starting with the 50/64 year olds, then professionals in sectors essential to the functioning of the country in an epidemic period such as those of security, education and food.
A doctor's prescription will be needed to receive an injection.
It will therefore be necessary to make an appointment, when his turn comes, with his attending physician for a pre-vaccination consultation to trigger the act of vaccination, the cost of which will be fully covered by health insurance.
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