Vaccinate again, and especially massively.
The government has kept hammering the same message.
The weekend will be key, marked by a drastic acceleration of the campaign, at a time when the Covid-19 epidemic remains worrying and does not seem ready to bow down.
"We must put the package", has, once again, reminded Prime Minister Jean Castex, during a visit, this Saturday, in the Creuse before going to a vaccination center in Essonne, under the eye cameras.
To boost, 131,000 additional doses were sent urgently to the 23 departments under surveillance thanks to an increase in deliveries of the Pfizer product this week and a small stock remaining in the nursing homes where the campaign for the elderly is coming to an end.
Therefore, the vaccination centers usually little mobilized on weekends are this time on the bridge when others, ephemeral, were created in record time in order to honor many appointments pending since weeks.
VIDEO. Paris: a temporary vaccination center "to pick up people from the bottom of their building"
Immediately in Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), department in red, three centers were fully mobilized.
In the first, the injections with the AstraZeneca serum intensified when the other two, previously closed, were able to reopen for the weekend.
Closed?
“Yes, we had received so few Pfizer and Moderna doses that they were reserved for second injections!
Finally, we have been restocked and we have a lot of requests, ”says Clotilde Latarche, epidemiologist at the Nancy University Hospital, relieved and happy to see the campaign accelerate.
"We feel that we are scraping the ends of the drawer"
In Clamart, in Hauts-de-Seine, a department under pressure, Doctor Jean-Paul Hamon, also honorary president of the Federation of Doctors of France, does not complain about this excess of Pfizer doses, even if he expected more.
“We were to receive 1,800 and finally we had 760, the result we vaccinated everyone in one day when we could have done double this Sunday, he regrets, tackling a
communication operation
.
We feel that we are scraping the ends of the drawer, we still lack stock and above all, let's stop saying that general practitioners do not want to vaccinate, that's wrong!
The real problem is, there isn't enough.
"
The punch operation seemed, however, to have borne these fruits with 220,000 people immunized in one day, about "the double of last Saturday", tweeted the Minister of Health.
Mobilization weekend for vaccination across the country.
Doctors, caregivers, firefighters, elected officials and community staff: everyone on deck.
And already this Saturday at 5.30 pm, 220,000 French people have been vaccinated, more than double from last Saturday.
We continue tomorrow!
pic.twitter.com/F0EtMo0zTa
- Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) March 6, 2021
But can this rhythm continue with the same intensity?
Today, only nearly 3.7 million French people have received a first injection and 1.9 million both while the government expects 10 million immunized by mid-April.
"I do not know if it is a real blow of the collar or if it is to reassure the population, indicates the epidemiologist Roger Salamon.
But speeding up the campaign is the only solution, we no longer have a choice!
"
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For their part, pharmacists will join the dance "from next week", precisely on March 12, in the departments in tension, confirms Philippe Besset, the president of the federation of pharmaceutical unions of France.
The boss only hopes for one thing, that the deliveries of AstraZeneca doses can increase over time.
Because the demand is already there.
“There are even people over 50 without comorbidities who are already calling me to be vaccinated on April 15!
"
