D + 21 or D + 28?
On what date must the second injection be given for people over 75, whose Covid-19 vaccination campaign began on January 18?
If at first the delay was three weeks between the two injections, it quickly increased to four weeks.
For the cities of Ile-de-France that have opened vaccination centers, this evolution of the rules is now turning into a puzzle.
Because several thousand appointments were made for the two injections, taking into account the initial period of three weeks.
This essential second injection should therefore take place between February 8 and 12 for the first concerned.
But the Regional Health Agency (ARS) demanded that municipalities postpone these appointments by a week.
"I no longer open an appointment until I have the doses in my hands"
“We therefore had to call back 400 people because it is not enough to send a simple SMS”, breathes Jean-Didier Berger, the (Free!) Mayor of Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine), where twelve people are mobilized to turn the call center backing onto the vaccination center.
For the city councilor, the most total uncertainty hangs over the vaccination capacity of his center next week.
"Yesterday alone we had 762 calls, our waiting list keeps growing and I don't open any more appointments until I have the doses in my hands", says he.
Until then, each center in Hauts-de-Seine had 420 doses per week.
“I am told 75 doses only for first-time injections the week of February 8,” continues Jean-Didier Berger.
All of this is contrary to public speech.
It is absolutely not an acceleration of the vaccination campaign but a slowing down, even a stop.
"
For its part, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) ensures that 30,000 first injection appointments will be honored next week in Ile-de-France.
"The situation during the week of February 8 raised fears of the postponement of several thousand meetings," writes the ARS.
The mobilization of 20,000 doses of Moderna vaccine (
Editor's note: until now only the Pfizer vaccine was administered
) which will be concentrated over this week and the work undertaken to increase the reliability, center by center, all the data have made it possible to postpone this risk ”.
The ARS expects 10,000 primary injections the week of February 15
However, for the cities concerned, the postponements of meetings are a reality.
"For us, 500 second injection appointments had to be postponed," laments Jacques Kossowski, mayor (LR) of Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine), who does not understand why "the ARS has not listened to the mayors and privileged the second doses to secure vaccination ”.
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Others fear having the answer to this thorny question.
"With this fourth week of first injections, we make the figure, what the government seeks to justify the acceleration of the vaccination campaign, at the risk of endangering the second injections", blows an elected representative of Hauts-de- Seine.
The regional agency nevertheless assures that “66,000 second injections and around 10,000 first injections will be provided the week of February 15 in ambulatory centers” in Ile-de-France, numbering 116.
In Paris, "we do our best to ensure that no appointment already taken is canceled"
"It remains to be seen how many doses will be allocated to the Hauts-de-Seine department, which is much less well endowed than Paris," annoys an elected official, putting in parallel the 5,500 weekly doses provided to the centers of the department - for 122 646 inhabitants over 75 years old - to 10,000 weekly doses for Paris, which has 162,912 people over 75 years old.
Precisely, for the week of February 8,
Paris will only receive 7,000 doses.
For the following, "it's the unknown", we whisper to the town hall.
"At the request of the ARS, since the end of last week, we no longer give a new appointment for a first injection, we detail to the City of Paris.
But we do our best to ensure that no appointment already taken is canceled.
And our priority is to secure the second injection.
"
"We think we can get there by postponing for a week the appointments that had been given 21 days later, we resume at the City of Paris.
This represents several hundred appointments, scheduled for the week of the 8th, which are postponed to the week of the 15th. It is very uncomfortable.
"
Contrasting situation in Seine-Saint-Denis
In Seine-Saint-Denis, some cities are also forced to juggle appointments.
"Since January 18, we have changed 1,200 appointments, it's completely crazy," laments the mayor (DVD) of Neuilly-sur-Marne, Zartoshte Bakhtiar.
The city had already had to postpone the second injections scheduled for the week of February 8 to 15.
But on Friday the ARS also asked "to free up a maximum of places for the week of February 8 to 15", the number of available vaccines being known at the last moment.
"But we do not know how much exactly," explains the elected.
We have canceled 170 appointments and are running a parallel waiting list preparing to call overnight people for the next day.
The ARS praises the management of our center but the back office is overheating.
"
In Saint-Denis, on the contrary, the municipality (PS) assures to have been able to avoid, so far, postponements.
“We were very careful from the start of the vaccination campaign, avoiding relying on an increase in load because we had no certainty,” explains Katy Bontinck, first assistant in charge of health.
We always kept the same number of doses
(Editor's note: 488, precisely, this week)
.
"
From the first injections, slots were automatically reserved for the second dose, "on D + 28", specifies the elected official.
While waiting for the deliveries of Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, the city does not intend to accelerate the pace "before the week of February 22.
"
