A vaccination center in Cannes. – Lionel urman
- Since this Wednesday, all adults, without comorbidities, can make an appointment for the same day or the next day if there are doses left. At the beginning of the week, the vaccination was opened, without conditions, to all French people over 50 years old.
- To date, 18.5 million first doses have already been injected in France and 8.5 million French people have been fully vaccinated.
- On the eve of the Ascension Bridge, some French people plan to be vaccinated in their holiday resort. But is it really possible? “20 Minutes” takes stock.
At a time when the vaccination campaign against the coronavirus has widened, this Monday, to all over 50 years and that the 18-50 years can, since this Wednesday, make an appointment when there are still doses, the government called on the French to “adapt” this summer, by trying to make compatible their dates of departure on vacation and their vaccination appointments.
With the end of travel restrictions and the reopening of bars, museums and non-essential shops, many French people have planned to leave. But can we make a vaccination appointment at our vacation or weekend location? 20 minutes takes stock of the issue.
Both injections at the same vaccination center
With the opening of the vaccination campaign to all people over 50 this week, then those over 18 in mid-June, some of the French should receive their second dose during the summer holidays. But the instructions are clear: “The rule is that the second dose takes place in the center where we took our first dose,” said the Ministry of Health on Tuesday at an online press point. For the government, vaccination must come before the holiday or weekend programming: “You have to adapt your holiday schedule. (…) There will be a need to adapt to his vaccination schedule for these holidays ”.
“We strongly recommend that the second injection be carried out at the same place as the first, in particular in order not to disrupt the logistics chain and to allow the best allocation of doses”, also affirmed the General Directorate of Health, this Wednesday, questioned by our colleagues from West France. Indeed, the time between the two injections must absolutely be respected: 42 days between the first and the second dose for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, 12 weeks for the AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines, specified the Ministry of Health, specifying that prolongation between injections for the two messenger RNA vaccines was excluded.
An “exception” in case of “imperative”
There is the instruction, and there is the reality. The government is already anticipating the French who would still make an appointment for their second injection in a vaccination center different from that of the first injection. Thus, it will still be possible to “take your second dose in another place where you are going to spend your vacation”, but this “must be the exception” in case of “imperative”, recalled the ministry of Health. Appointments in different vaccination centers for the first and second injection could lead to “disorganization”, explained the ministry explaining that it was “very difficult to succeed in anticipating the number of additional doses” to send in a given department.
Start of the week, in an interview with Parisian, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, himself, had called on the French to be vaccinated “including on (their) place of vacation”, specifying that the centers of vaccination “will be of course open” during the bridge of the Ascension. Tuesday, the head of government reiterated his remarks on France 2: “Do not hesitate to go to be vaccinated in a vaccination center of your holiday resort. They are open. We will leave them open all weekend. I am counting on the mobilization, ”he insisted.
But beware, for those who would make an appointment in another vaccination center for their second injection, “however, be sure to cancel the second appointment made in the center of origin, in order to release a dose for one. another person, then likely to be able to retrieve the appointment, ”warned the DGS.
More doses in tourist areas
To compensate for the multiplication of appointments at popular vacation spots, adaptations of the vaccination campaign are planned in tourist areas, where more doses will be sent, said the Ministry of Health. “A reflection” is underway with the regional health agencies concerned to “anticipate population movements” and “imagine forms of vaccination that are a little” boosted “in tourist places”, in particular “to maintain a vaccine offer in primary vaccination which is dynamic in these tourist places ”.
“It is very difficult to anticipate the number of additional doses that must be sent to a given department because in such a department, there will be so many second doses to be given at such a time”, explains the Ministry of Health. “It depends on the flow of populations and movements which are linked to the individual choices of people, hence the need to impose the rule of vaccination in the same place.” Conversely, “business continuity plans” will be put in place for the vaccination centers in metropolitan areas, to “maintain the pace” of vaccinations this summer, by replacing the health professionals who carry out the vaccinations during their leave. pre-vaccination consultations and injections.