He is worried about a lack of vaccination among caregivers.
The government wants "at least 80%" of nursing home and hospital staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19 "by September", failing which it will open "the way to an obligation", according to a letter consulted Tuesday by AFP.
"Our goal is that by September, at least 80% of professionals in nursing homes and health establishments have received at least one dose", write the ministers of Health Olivier Véran and Autonomy Brigitte Bourguignon in this letter addressed to directors of hospitals and retirement homes, dated Monday.
"Otherwise, we will pave the way for compulsory vaccination for health professionals", they add, designating more particularly nursing homes and long-term care units (USLD) where "only 55% of professionals received at minus one dose ”.
"This is not a normal situation"
"It is insufficient and it is not a normal situation with regard to the fragility of the residents, in a context of threats linked to the appearance and the diffusion of certain worrying variants", insist the two ministers.
The government thus specifies for the first time its target for vaccination coverage among caregivers, after several warnings.
Tuesday morning again, Olivier Véran had again threatened on FranceInfo to make vaccination "compulsory" in September for caregivers if the "work of conviction" was not sufficient during the summer.
"I cannot take the risk of having waves of Covid in nursing homes, of being forced to close the nursing homes, of being forced to tell tens, hundreds of thousands of elderly people who have nothing asked that they can no longer see their families, that they can no longer go out, and count the sick and victims in nursing homes because there would be a fear that could not have been fought and conquered ”, he justified.
It's "the only way out"
Recalling the need to go through the law, he cited the precedents of the obligation of vaccination against hepatitis B to work in the hospital or that against yellow fever to go to Guyana.
"I do not want to blame the caregivers, their work is complicated and they are fed up, they have had a very difficult year," he explained.
But, he added, "the only way to get by and relegate the Covid to oblivion is to protect the most fragile among us, those who, even vaccinated, keep a low risk. , to die or to have a serious form ”.
Read alsoThe debate: making the vaccination of caregivers compulsory, a good idea?
Asked about the request of general practitioners to have a list of their vaccinated patients, the minister assured that the CNIL would give a favorable opinion on Thursday.
"They will have it, I tell you, I sincerely wish it, I ask the CNIL to allow me the possibility of sending to general practitioners the list of their patients who have been vaccinated so that they can mobilize those who have not been, ”continued Olivier Véran.
