The army and firefighters will deploy
"at least 35"
large vaccination centers against Covid-19,
"to be able to use"
all the doses that will be delivered to France
"from April" ,
the Minister of Health said on Monday.
Read also: Covid-19: with vaccinodromes, France finally agrees to "industrialize" its vaccination
"The army health service will work to develop a number of large vaccination centers - we can call them 'vaccinodromes' or 'mega-centers', whatever the name,"
said Olivier Véran during a trip to Epinay -sous-Sénart (Essonne) with his colleague delegate in charge of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu.
“There are at least 35 centers which will be deployed by both the army and the firefighters on the national territory.
And we are deploying them with the State, Health Insurance, a certain number of others as well, ”
added the Minister of Health.
These 35 centers, supported by the army, are part of the 1 to 2 large vaccination centers per department managed by the ministry and health insurance.
It is for the authorities to
"be able to use all the vaccines delivered to us from April to massively vaccinate the French,"
he continued.
Olivier Véran reaffirmed the objective of
"10 million primary vaccines in mid-April, and then it will increase, because vaccine supplies will increase"
, he assured.
"Intensification of vaccination"
Asked by AFP, the Ministry of the Armed Forces specifies that, concerning him,
"the current reflection concerns the army training hospitals"
, 8 in number on the national territory.
"We are considering an intensification of vaccination in these hospitals depending on our means and the number of doses available"
, explains one within the ministry.
"The armies are already very involved today alongside other State and Public Health services in the management of the Covid crisis"
, their chief of staff, General François Lecointre, commented on BFMTV on Sunday. , by evoking in particular the delivery by military means of vaccines in the overseas territories.
The military health service (SSA) has also deployed around fifty of its personnel to reinforce Mayotte, in order to manage ten additional resuscitation beds within the hospital center.
During the first epidemic wave, in the spring of 2020, the French soldiers had also contributed to the collective effort under the umbrella of Operation “Resilience”: opening of a medical resuscitation structure in a tent in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), transfer of patients by air or transport of medical equipment and reinforcements overseas.