"
Continue to vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate"
, as Emmanuel Macron confided on Friday on the sidelines of his trip to the United Arab Emirates.
To curb the spread of the Delta variant and avoid congestion in hospitals, the government is counting on the administration of a booster injection to as many French people as possible, as soon as possible.
The campaign, open from September 1 to vulnerable audiences, was reinvigorated by the decision to include from January 15 the third dose in the health pass. The milestone of 10 million people who received their third dose was crossed last Saturday. And demand is not weakening on the Doctolib online platform, where some 450,000 appointments are booked on average each day, while other slots are taken directly from pharmacists, town doctors, nurses or midwives.
"The phone rings all day long
," says Brigitte Bouzige, pharmacist in the Gard.
But we are well organized, there are still a few places left in December. "
Here, the unused doses are collected at closure by nurses who offer them at home.
If 2.5 million appointments are still available by the end of January according to the Directorate General of Health, the deadlines are getting longer, and some are wondering if all French people who so wish can be protected before January 15.
Yesterday, 64,000 appointments were available within three days on Doctolib, 143,000 within seven days.
Some regions are apparently better equipped than others: 5,400 meetings offered over a week in Occitania (6 million inhabitants), against 43,800 in Île-de-France (12 million inhabitants).
Priority to the elderly
The Ministry of Health, however, assures us that
"the impression
(of a lack of slots, Editor's note)
is false"
.
“Up to 400,000 places have been opened daily in recent days
,” he explains.
There will be no shortage of doses, we have enough to vaccinate everyone. ”
On condition of not depriving yourself of the Moderna vaccine, the doses of which, delivered late, make up the majority of stocks. The ministry announces a rebalancing in distribution: Moderna vials are now directed primarily to vaccination centers, and their use encouraged in those over 30 (especially the most fragile among them). The third dose can in fact be carried out indifferently with one or the other of the RNA vaccines, whatever the initial vaccination scheme, with comparable efficacy.
"The issue is not to choose this or that vaccine, but to receive a booster as soon as possible,"
insists the ministry, while the French seem to have a preference for the vaccine marketed by Pfizer.
The craze for the third dose prompted the Ministry of Health to reinstate last Friday the skip-the-line number (0800 730 956) dedicated to people over 65, who are priority.
About 10% of the dates were booked these days by this age group.
More at risk of severe Covid, those over 65 were vaccinated first, and their immunity drops more sharply over time than that of younger people.