New standoff between the executive and local elected officials on the vaccination front?
Several mayors would like, or even plan to make doses accessible to categories that the government has not yet classified as priorities.
In Cannes, for example, all residents aged 50 and over who wish to do so can now make an appointment.
It is "common sense", said Thursday evening on Twitter the mayor of the city, David Lisnard.
Other elected officials plead to allow teachers or the police to be "stung".
Even if it means annoying the executive, which has increased the number of meetings in recent months to establish a tailor-made vaccination policy.
Currently, only people aged 50 or over who have co-morbidities, those aged 75 or older (70 as of this Saturday), those with very serious illness and professionals health workers are supposed to be able to access immunization, according to the government schedule.
"Unbridle priority targets"
Contacted by Le Parisien, the Cannes municipality ensures that every 75 years and over, who have expressed the wish to be vaccinated, have received at least one dose of vaccine on March 23.
This represents approximately 9,000 people.
People 50 and over with comorbidities are in the same case and the injections, Pfizer or Moderna, were carried out in one of the two centers opened by the City at the beginning of January.
All 65-74 year olds who had pre-registered on the municipal platform “were then offered a first meeting”.
As for the 50-64 year olds without comorbidities, they can therefore, from this Thursday, reserve a time slot from April 9.
In the meantime, the next two weeks will be used to carry out the second injections and to “prick” for the first time people who have already had priority in recent weeks but who would only request them now.
I leave a video and read the @olivierveran statement.
I am astonished that he argues and judges the President who asks to vaccinate "morning, noon and evening".
So, having finished the other audiences, we open the appointment booking for +50 years.
Common sense.
- David Lisnard (@davidlisnard) March 25, 2021
During the first weekend of March, in Nice, every 50 years and over had also been able to be vaccinated.
This time they were able to take advantage of the AstraZeneca vaccine, of which 8,000 doses were available.
"It was an exceptional situation where we had an incidence rate in Nice of around 700 (3 times more than the national average) and 617 in the Alpes-Maritimes" and "it is the only weekend that benefited from special conditions, ”says one in the entourage of the mayor of the city, Christian Estrosi.
And to insist on having "always respected" the instructions of the government.
As for the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, she pleads for “unleashing vaccination”.
"Everyone must be vaccinated," said the city councilor of the capital on March 21 on Europe 1, referring as a priority to "those who work with children", the police or even "front-line workers".
"Yes, we must unleash the priority targets, in particular to allow Atsem [regional agents specializing in nursery schools] to be vaccinated," adds Richard Bouigue, the first deputy mayor of the 12th arrondissement.
A decision at "national level", recalls Véran
With annoyance.
"The vaccination of 50 years and over without comorbidity will not be done until it has been decided at the national level and therefore not until we have not protected all the fragile and vulnerable people", replied Thursday evening Olivier Véran.
The Minister of Health castigates a decision taken "without alerting either the general management of the ARS or even the prefect, or even the caregivers who are mobilized to vaccinate in Cannes and everywhere else in France".
Cannes town hall ensures, aside, that it has not received any opposition from local authorities.
On closer inspection, however, the executive's schedule is not vastly different.
The official vaccination schedule provides for the start of vaccination for 50-69 year olds without comorbidities from “mid-April”, as indicated on the service-public.fr website.
The Cannes town hall ensures for its part that the 50-64 can make an appointment now but that the proposed slots do not start until April 9.
"We have a few days in advance, as in January when we were able to start the vaccination of over 75s on the 13th instead of January 18 at the national level," one emphasizes.
As for the vaccination of teachers and the police, it will not start before the middle or the end of April.
Thursday evening, Olivier Véran refused to indicate a specific date.
Keep stock for second doses
It all depends on the number of doses available.
At the national level, the account is not there if we want to expand vaccination to every 50 years and over.
The 70-74 year olds will be able to be vaccinated from this Saturday and barely 20% of them have received at least one dose so far.
This means that 2.8 million people in this age group who want it have not yet been vaccinated.
However, less than 2 million doses among all those delivered have not been administered to date.
Deliveries will obviously increase in the coming weeks but there is also one in two people aged 75 or more who have not yet been vaccinated.
Without counting all the second doses that will have to be administered in April, the vast majority of injections carried out in March are first doses (the difference between the two is 4 weeks for Pfizer and Moderna).
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Broadening the targets could nevertheless be imagined at the local level, given that vaccination does not go at the same rate in all territories.
The Alpes-Maritimes, where the cities of Cannes and Nice are located, are also the third most advanced department in the 70-74 age group.
More than a third of the elderly in this bracket have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to data from Public Health France.