While France is closing in on a more dangerous and rapid virus, vaccination, still lagging behind, will take off on the territory.
This is the promise reiterated by the president, who presented his new calendar this Wednesday evening.
While those over 70 can already claim it, from April 16, it will be the turn of those over 60 to receive anti-Covid injections, then those over 50 from May 15.
"We will keep the objective that I have set for us", undertook Emmanuel Macron, otherwise at the end of the summer, all volunteers over 18 years old will be able to be protected.
A schedule that Doctor Jacques Battistoni, president of the MG France general practitioner union, considers “tenable”.
To carry out this strategy, France first intends to step up the pace.
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Pfizer and Moderna serums are administered in 1,700 centers and 250,000 healthcare professionals are mobilized to inject the AstraZeneca product and from April 19, Johnson & Johnson.
The second objective is to manufacture the serums in France and in Europe and to gradually become “the leading continent in the world in terms of vaccine production”.
While more than 8.5 million people received a first dose and 2.8 million both, the effects are already being felt and mortality has fallen sharply in those over 80.
Still, getting a date when you're over 75 can sometimes turn into a puzzle.
"I am deeply sorry, this is not acceptable," admitted the Head of State, while for a few days, the Health Insurance teams have called them to resolve the situation.
"We've been waiting for weeks"
"Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate, without respite, without public holiday, Saturday and Sunday like the week" ... The president's formula made Doctor Jacques Battistoni laugh yellow.
He says he can, but with what?
“Doctors complain about not having doses, every time we are told they are coming, but there is a shortage.
"
His colleagues share the same fed up.
On the side of Nancy, in the Grand-Est, Clotilde Latarche, epidemiologist at the hospital, is in despair.
“Last Thursday, for example, we vaccinated 71 people, see the ridiculous.
"
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"We are ready to do the three eights if necessary, but we have no doses," rebounds Claudine Gillant, liberal nurse in Richardménil, a town south of Nancy.
Within a fortnight, she will have the right to "a vial" for the whole week when she has been officially authorized to vaccinate since last Saturday.
"We've been waiting for weeks, patients harass us, what are we telling them?
She asks furiously.
Especially since the arrival of the Johnson & Johnson serum in mid-April should hardly change the situation.
“We were told there would be very few.
We are fed up with great announcements!
"
